Metro Knight
by cgaussie01
Summary: AU/GB: Wayne discovers just what this magnificent watch of Megamind's is capable of and goes out to enjoy the day as just a regular every day man. What he didn't count on, though, was being mugged... or being rescued by a woman with blue skin.
1. Origins

**Metro Knight**

**Origins**

By cgaussie & threequarterfox

"Okay, so here's my week so far. Went to Jail, lost the girl of my dreams, and got my butt kicked pretty good. Still, things could be a lot worse. I could be falling to my death right now..." Muttering to himself, Wayne finally fell below the level of the buildings, and with this scant cover, stopped falling, throwing a line over to a nearby window ledge and pretending to swing in to the wall, landing neatly and pausing. "How did it all come to this?" he grumbled to himself, walking up the wall and retrieving the hooked end of his rope. "My story starts at the beginning." He eyed the building opposite, swung his rope, and neatly flicked it to latch onto an ornate gargoyle. "The _very _beginning..." he sighed, swinging out over the City.

Witnessing the death of a star wasn't something any body ever wanted to witness in their lifetimes, yet for the planets that orbited the Yusan Sun in the Glauxpant quadrant had no opinion over whether or not they wanted to see it take place or not. The sun had collapsed in on itself, and like any dying sun it was making it all but impossible for anything to escape its gravitational pull.

Two of the many planets that made up the small galaxy were populated with intelligent life, but that didn't make their reaction to the death of their sun any more different then that of human beings. There was panic in the streets as the ground trembled and buildings collapsed, the air was filled with sirens blaring and screams of panic-stricken individuals. Amongst the chaos however, there was one couple who was oddly calm as they ran towards a waiting gold and white rocket that sat patiently for them. A woman with thick brown hair lifted her gaze briefly to stare up at the sky that, up to only a few minutes ago, had been a clear blue had turned an ugly, horrible black.

"Come on. Hurry." the man who had ran along with her urged her to follow him, gesturing to the toddler she held in her arms.

"_Born on a planet that was fated to die. That's how my story began, but against all odds my parents managed to get me into a ship... and only me... to ensure my survival."_

"Yes, yes... Sorry..." she stammered as she followed after him and they stopped in front of the small ship that was built large enough to carry only one occupant, and judging by how small it was it wasn't for either of them. As the man fiddled with something inside the small ship the woman stroked the hair of the brown haired, blue eyed baby boy in her arms. "We love you, we love you so much."

The baby reached up and touched his mothers cheek and whined before he was suddenly being deposited in the ship. Safety belts set into place he stared up at his parents, who watched him from outside. Finding the confinement not to his liking he frowned and reached out to the two of them, causing his mother to turn her head away as her shoulders shook.

"You will travel far, but we will never leave you." his father said, his voice unwavering despite the destruction and death that hung in the air like a thick fog. "You will carry us inside you all the days of your life, you will make our strength your own." the man reached for a button on the side of the ship and looked down at his son for one last time and smiled at him, because this wasn't truly goodbye. Not really.

"You will be strong, my son, in the face of all you face for we will be with you. Always."

"_These are the first memories I have, and the only ones of my true parents. My fathers final words to me continue to be an aspiration to me, even now."_

Then the small rocket slowly closed with a gentle hiss, and the toddler watched as his parents, and the world he called home, suddenly vanished in seconds. The gravity of the sun and his planet caused the little rocket to shake with the power and strength in its rockets and engine, and for a moment it seemed as though it wouldn't be capable of breaking free of the gravitational pull. With one last burst of strength, however, it shot forward out into space, away from the dying planets that were slowly being pulled to their doom.

The view of the planetary pool game was always visible to the toddler, until his ship was thrown off course by an unexpected strangely shaped missile appearing to attempt to latch onto the underside of the streamlined white spacecraft. The rocket did a barrel roll in response before straightening up again, giving the toddler a clear view of just what had bumped into him.

_"It seemed as though my parents weren't the only ones to think up a plan to get their child off of their dying planet. On my planets neighbouring planet, a couple appeared to have the very same idea because this was the day I met her for the first time."_

It was another pod but vastly different to the white, comfortable one he was being carried in. This one was round, looked as if it had been put together in the last minute, and the occupant's skin was a dramatically different color to his own. Said occupant was blue, and stared at him with a stunned look as it pressed its cheek against the glass of its door.

His rocket was intact, but his pride was hurt. The toddler blew a raspberry in the direction of his primary-coloured attacker, then did his best to pretend not to notice the bully. The sleek white rocket noted his discomfort, and presented him with comforting milk. His ship burned forward.

For the remainder of the trip through space the other pod continued to trail his, trying to keep up. The journey was, for the most part, uneventful except for when they flew through an asteroid field and the others ship ended up bouncing from asteroid to asteroid like some kind of pinball. This brought him some amusement and he giggled as he watched it rebound off another rock, and clapped his hands.

It almost distracted him from the planet which had suddenly, apparently, appeared out of nowhere. The blue planet was approaching quickly and it wasn't long until his rocket was flying down through the atmosphere, once again causing it to bump and shake, this time from re-entry. Just how the other pod managed to stay in one piece, and get ahead of his own ship was a mystery.

The ships careered downward, now that down was more than just a concept, and were soon racing over a large sprawling city. They appeared attracted to one another like two charged magnets, bounced from each other one last time, and seperated, the sleek white one bouncing up the steps of an ancient building, the other clattering into the distance, rolling over and over.

"_And this is where fate, and my parents rocket, delivered me. Scott Manor. A life filled with luxury, and all kinds of fancy, rich things. This is where I met my new parents, on Christmas Day."_

A pair of double doors were pushed open when the little golden rocket slammed up against them, and it slid majestically down a long hallway before coming to a stop neatly beneath a green tree that was decorated with expensive looking lights and trinkets. With a gentle hiss the door on the rocket opened up and standing over him was a woman with short brown hair, and an amazed look on her face.

"A baby!" she declared, reaching down to lift him into her arms. "How thoughtful!"

"Hm? Yes I saw it and thought of you." said a man from behind a newspaper, who sat comfortably in a chair while the woman tickled the toddler's stomach.

"_I just wish I had had the opportunity to know them for longer."_

He was renamed Wayne Scott, for his father, and life was pretty much what you would expect for the only son of the wealthiest couple in the city. That city being Metro City, a futuristic, beautiful city that was a shining beacon for the country to turn to for inspiration. The Scotts helped with many fund raisers, which helped finance all manner of things ranging from medicine to entertainment. Little Wayne got everything his heart desired, and grew under the watchful eyes of his parents.

"_It was under their tutelage I learned the difference between right and wrong, about what sacrifice was all about, as well as what was expected of me being their only son. It was all pretty heavy for a little boy to take in at the time, but I guess I was always preparing myself for something big in my life. If only it hadn't happened so soon..."_

The first big thing in my life was school. My parents, always opinionated, had opinions about school as well. Instead of sending me to a school full of the children of their peers, rich and replete, they organised a very different education for me...

The students were key, in this school. I wasn't the only adoption they made, although the other students, orphans all, were not children of my rich house, but from all over the City. My parents offered them free education, meals and housing, in an effort to improve their lot in life And, even as a child, I was sent to school with them, to learn how to associate with people from all walks of life.

Needless to say, in such an environment, a little boy will soon start putting on airs.

I was still coming to terms with the fact that other little boys couldn't do what I could do, and I soon had the entire school wrapped around my little finger...

I was juggling the teachers table, complete with teacher, when she walked in the door. Her blue skin contrasted remarkably with the orange uniform she wore, her eyes, big as dishplates, blinked at me in surprise. Confounded, I put the teacher down.

Held tightly in her hands was a glass ball and suspended inside, in water, was a small glowing fish who was glaring at me with a look I'd never seen on someone's face before. The girl, being unchained from her restraints since she had been brought into the school in handcuffs, continued to stare at me while the officers spoke in muffled tones to our teacher.

Finally her expression turned from nervous awe to a glare to match that of the fish and she pushed her shoulders back and held her blue, large, head up in a superior manner.

She was the most remarkable person I had ever met.

We soon were finding out each others interests. I hated art, where half the colours were no different to the other colours, while she excelled at it, being a finer artist than any of the other students there. I adored music, playing a ukelele, and soon a small-sized guitar, a beloved Christmas present from my parents. She refused to sing, sitting in a corner muttering to the fish which was her constant companion. She rarely spoke to anyone else.

To be honest, she rarely did anything with anyone else. The little girl was often left sitting to herself to a whole table, but it seemed as though that's the way she liked it as far as I could tell. Throughout recess she would find somewhere on the green grass to sit, with that glowing purple and blue fish, and just kept to herself. I must admit though that I did witness some of the other children making fun of her due to her skin tone, or her bald head, either behind her back or sometimes straight to her face.

In instances like that Lucy would give them such a hate filled look it was a wonder they didn't burn to ash under such a gaze. I heard people remarking on her unusual eye colour, but her eyes were oversized, but just brownish. Similar to many other eyes I saw. Her skin colour was remarkable, but like so many other colours which people pointed out, her eyes were not unusual.

At the end of every school day I would watch as Lucy would wait by the front door, fingers tapping against the glass of the round glass ball. Soon an armoured, black, bus would pull up outside of the school. Out of it would walk two police men who would put handcuffs on her small, skinny wrists, and lead her off to the bus. This fast became something the other children liked watching, and they would make playful taunts and jeers at the fact she was going to jail. She quietly ignored them.

Someone else must have noticed, the teacher perhaps, because the bus started coming later and later in the afternoon, so that most students had gone home. Soon the teacher and I were the only ones to watch the escort out the door, and the prison bus.

My own pick up from the school happened very late, the last one always, a huge dark car pulling up at the gate and chauffering me away to our huge white house on the hill. It never occurred to me at the time how similar these two modes of transport really were.

It was one such afternoon, not too long after the second term started, that I saw her faithfully waiting by the back door of the school. Normally she would wait inside the school, sitting at a desk, but today it looked as though she wanted to stay outdoors a little longer. She was kneeling in the grass, her fish situated right besides her, as she ran her hands back and forth over the grass. This was something I'd spotted her doing every now and then, but could never understand why she did it.

"Whatcha found?"

I had startled her. She looked up quickly and pulled her hands to her chest and that defiant look crossed her face, just as it always did when somebody talked to her.

"Nothing!" she said back. A second later she had suddenly pulled the fish into her lap protectively, as if she half expected me to make a grab for it.

I looked as hard as I could where she had been running her hands, and couldn't find what she was fascinated by. It was just a patch of grass.

"How does your fish breathe in there?" I asked. I'd been wanting to ask this for weeks, and never found the opportunity.

She stared at me for a moment before looking down at the little fish, who was watching me with a watchful eye. "He's a fish." she said finally as she looked back up at me. "He's breathing water."

"But there isn't much water. It's mostly... fish." The fish glared at me, and I backed up. "Hello, fish."

The little fish backed up in the ball, looking somewhat shy and uncertain of being addressed.

"I change the water a lot, that way he doesn't choke on the water he's already breathed..." Lucy replied as she drew a circle on the ball with her finger. "And his name is Minion."

"Uh. Hello... Minion?" My parents had taught me to shake hands with people when I first met them, but this time I was completely lost as to what to do next.

Minion wasn't giving up any ways in which to solve my problem, since he simply blinked his large eyes at me.

"It... must be tough being stuck in a ball all the time."

Lucy actually had a small, private smile on her face at that statement which was a surprise since she almost never smiled around people before. The fish known as Minion, however, seemed to... shrug? He lifted both of his fins in a particular manner that certainly gave off the idea of shrugging but just how he'd done it without shoulders I would never truly understand. "It's not too bad."

"Your fish can talk?" I was now sitting cross legged right opposite her. "Way cool!"

Lucy had gone quiet, and looked shocked. Minion had never spoken to me, or anyone before really, so maybe it had been something the two of them shared? It would certainly explain why she was always mumbling to the fish, now.

She bit her bottom lip for a moment. "Y-yeah." Lucy scratched her cheek nervously. "He does. And he is."

"Thank you!" Minion squeaked, looking pleased as punch.

"How come you never told anyone?" this toothy grin was the first happy expression I'd seen on the fish's face. It was contagious, I grinned back at him like a fool.

"It's a secret." Lucy, and Minion, said at the same time. The blue girl patted the ball carefully, before resting her palm on it.

"I won't tell." I reached my hand out, very slowly, and touched the sphere gently with one finger. It was quite cold.

Lucy had watched me, carefully, since if I recall nobody else had even been allowed near Minion to actually touch the glass ball before. She seemed to freeze, and maybe even hold her breath, as I touched it.

Minion, however, simply smiled up at me from beneath the glass. "We'll hold you to that!" he grinned. The glass vibrated with his voice under my fingertip.

That's when the honking of a familiar, and ominous, horn sounded behind us. Lucy lifted her gaze and watched as the prison bus pulled up outside of the school. She looked back at me with those big, brown eyes and actually looked reluctant to go. Biting her bottom lip she slowly got to her feet.

"Bye." she mumbled, and Minion waved with a fin as she walked to meet the two guards who were already climbing out of the bus to collect her. Just why it took two guards to hand cuff a seven year old girl, I will never truly understand.

In the following days I found her unnapproachable during school, when anyone was around. I desperately wanted to talk to the fish, but knew by some instinct that if I did, everyone would see me, and I'd either look stupid or get them into trouble.

But nothing could prepare any of us for what happened a week after that. It took place only days after I had decided to show my class another one of the powers I had; when I concentrated hard enough I could make lasers come out from my eyes and to show this I made some popcorn for the class. Not soon long after that, Lucy attempted to do the same thing only without the aid of eye lasers (since she didn't have any). To our surprise she had made Minion a suit to help him get around in, but what had started as a fairly impressive display of her designing abilities turned into panic when the corn she had attempted to pop caught fire.

Naturally this scared all of the children, and Lucy ended up in all sorts of trouble with not only our teacher, but parents as well as the guards who came to pick her up earlier that day than normal.

Minion wasn't allowed in the school again, after that. It seemed as though that was punishment for her 'outlandish' behaviour, agreed upon by the prison but possibly also our teacher. She never seemed to care for the 'ugly little fish'.

Lucy became more withdrawn after that.

I tried to talk to her after school, waiting for our respective vehicles to arrive, and she turned her back on me, sitting facing the wall.

She stopped paying attention during even her favourite subjects, subjects I was never good at, such as mathematics and art. Her most hated subjects she attempted to sit out of entirely, and stood by passively during music and sports.

One such day our teacher announced that the sport of choosing would be dodgeball. A harmless enough game in the right circumstances, but at our school, at this time it was a whole other ball game... Pardon the pun.

Lucy, as usual, had tried to avoid the game entirely. She had stood away from everyone, back to the wall, as if trying to blend into the wall and become invisible. But she was chosen by some of the other children, and prompted by the teacher to go play. I still remember her standing there in front of the bright wall, eyes, the colour of the wall, large as dinner plates, as she prepared herself for what was about to take place.

There was a cry of "Get her!" and the balls were thrown at her with such force her small frame was barely able to keep her footing for a few seconds. One ball to her head knocked her over onto her back, but that hardly seemed enough to deter the children. Despite it all Lucy remained eerily silent as she shielded her head from the onslaught, only waiting for it all to finish.

I stood by and watched, worriedly, unable to decide what to do.

One of the balls that had bounced off the wall rolled towards me, and came to a neat stop right in front of my feet.

"C'mon Wayne!" one of the others called out.

I picked up the ball, looked at the other students, looked at the crouched form of Lucy, looked down at the ball...

I guess my parents had assumed I'd rub off good behaviour onto my peers, but never considered what they would teach me.

After that, I was always more careful to be on Lucys team, when I could, so that I didn't have to throw the ball at her. She didn't sem to notice, hating me and the other students equally.

She invented strange machines continually, and these either blew up, went haywire, or seemed, quite on purpose, to attack whoever was around them. I earned the title of Classroom Protector, and felt proud that I was able to help.

By then, however, Lucy was pretty much mute to everyone around her. She would laugh, sure, but always at very inappropriate times (like when one of her devices caused trouble). Some days it seemed as though she would be sent to the corner and stood there for the whole entire day, back to us all, looking at the corner and never once turned to look at us.

Despite all this, she was still able to come to school to "interact with us".

Most of the kids told her she belonged in the jail, that she kept doing wrong things and didn't deserve to come here. At moments like this she would glare at them, her brown eyes filled with malice. Yet still she wouldn't talk.

One of the names the kids would call her was 'cat'. This had stemmed from her lurking demeanour, how she would glare for no real good reason, and I heard one girl say it was because of her pointed ears and eyes. That, and her solitary disposition.

The day in which everything blew up, literally, had started like any other. Lucy had been brought to school in chains and sat by herself at her desk while the rest of us mingled as always. It was arts and crafts time, if I remember, and one of the boys got up from his desk and gone over to hers. I think it was over needing some scissors or something, and since each desk had at least four in the centre of them, he would be able to get some there. Lucy had been drawing, as usual, all kinds of things.

"What's that?" he asked, looking down at the drawing she was working on. "Oh hey it's that fish!"

He could only have meant Minion.

"That stupid fish, is that why you're such a loner now? Does the kitty want her fish back?"

What happened then nobody could have anticipated. Lucy, mute, quiet, angry Lucy let out a sudden shriek that very well could be compared to that of a cat and leaped onto the boy. She easily knocked him over since he hadn't been anticipating it so he wasn't really prepared, and began scratching at his face as she continued to shriek at him. The other children were shocked, as was the teacher, who rushed to pull her off of him.

Then she bit our teacher.

There was a lot of rushing around after that, the rest of the class moving away from Lucy as fast as they could as our teacher regained her composure and finally pried Lucy away from the boy who was now crying on the floor. She was dragged to the corner and told to stay there until the guards came to collect her, which would be right away. Unfortunately our teacher hadn't seen she had set Lucy into the other corner... the one that led to the cabinet that was full of cleaning products and paints set aside for our art classes.

Her back had only been turned for no more than a few minutes before everything in the room suddenly turned blue.

Lucy had created, and set off, a paint bomb in the closet.

Needless to say the prison bus was there at the school not fifteen minutes later, as were all the parents who had been notified of the event. Everyone was splattered with blue paint, clothes were ruined, hair was stained, and the inside of the school house reflected the sudden explosion of color.

I, and everyone else, watched as the little girl was led off onto the bus by her guards. Never before had I seen such a wide and pleased smile on her face before. She sat at the back of the bus, as always, and watched us all from the safety of the vehicle looking as though she had just experienced her birthday and Christmas on the same day.

She wasn't allowed back into the school again.

This was directly before a far more important change in my life, however, so I have no idea whether she would eventually have been allowed to return.

We had been into the City late at night, far and beyond past my bedtime, and I was in high spirits. It was on the return home, however, that things went downhill. My father had insisted that we not use the car, but travel as those with far less than us would travel, on public transport, and our organised taxi home, a compromise made the request of my mother, never turned up. We stood on the side of the road, worriedly, both of my parents arguing with each other about what they were going to do.

I wanted to help. I knew that I could fly them home, could fetch the car, but both of my parents had so repeatedly insisted that I was to act like any other little boy, to act normal, and I wanted so badly to please them. I stood, my hand forgotten in my mothers hand, and watched the cars hiss past in the nighttime fog. It seemed about to rain.

A car suddenly stopped, and the back seat window rolled down. We all turned to look at it... and then things happened both very slowly, and extremely fast. Someone threw something out of the car window, which fell to the ground and rolled. It was about the size of a can of soda, and I watched it as it rolled right over and hit the toe of my shiny, brand new boot. My father yelled, pulling us away, and the car sped off. Then everything stopped being quiet and sleepy, and became bright lights and noise.

My parents didn't even scream, and I sat there in the rain, trying to wipe something out of my eyes. My shoes weren't shiny and new any more, and I couldn't hear anything.

Bernard picked me up from the hospital the next morning. He was eighteen years old, and one of the prodigal sons that my father had discovered in one of his many schools for orphans. While he could be cold and standoffish to people, he was always very close to both me and my parents so it wasn't at all a surprise when it was him who came to collect me. He was, back then, the older brother I never truly had.

I remember his arms wrapping around me in the hospital room where I had been staying. Bernard had always been a serious man, strong in his own ways. In that hospital room though, it was like he became somebody else for a little while as he cried with me. I've never seen him cry again.

He held my hand as he led me out of the hospital and through the sea of media who were blocking our paths, physically putting himself between me and the flashing lights (that brought on horrendous flashbacks) and the microphones being shoved in our faces. One man was even brazen enough to get in front of the car door Bernard was trying to open, shoving one microphone into his face and asking something I really don't remember.

"Wait in line like the other scavengers." Bernard had hissed at the man before shoving him aside, and he pushed me into the car first, then climbed in after me and shut the door. "Vultures the lot of them." he mumbled as the driver pulled away from the hospital, headed for home where no doubt there would be more media crews waiting.

The house was huge and cold and quiet. Bernard found me in my bedroom, curled up in my mothers duvet, which I had dragged in from my parents room.

He watched me for a moment before adjusting the round glasses on his face before walking over and sat besides me on the bed. "Are you hungry?" he asked as he tugged one of the edges of the duvet up in order to look in on me since I had well and truly wrapped it around myself.

"Not hungry." I glared out at him angrily.

"You need to eat something." Bernard replied. "You're no good to anyone if you waste away."

"I'm no good anyway." I whimpered into the duvet. It smelt of my mother. "Eating won't help."

"Yes it will." he said, having to tilt his head in order to find my face amongst the fabric. "And don't say that about yourself."

"It's true. I couldn't do ANYthing. I didn't do anything." I was crying in earnest now. "It was bad and dark and there was nothing I could do."

I felt Bernard's hand against my back through the duvet, and the man sighed softly. "That doesn't mean you're no good, Wayne. What happened... it was horrible, and a cowardly thing to do, but you can't think less of yourself because of what other people did."

"We shouldn't have been there." I whispered. "I should have flown them home. I should have gone and got the car. We shouldn't have been out on the street all alone. We should have waited inside for the taxi... I should have thrown the soda can away..."

"There's too many 'should haves' in the world as it is, if you ask me." Bernard replied quietly. "I know you have all these powers, but you're still very young. Too young to have witnessed this happen to your parents but it's happened. It was not your fault these people did this, and you shouldn't blame yourself. I know I blamed myself when my parents died, I hated myself for so long."

I knew Bernard had lost his parents, because that's why my father had discovered him in the school. He had lost his parents at a young age, even younger than me, when they died in a car accident. Bernard had been no older than four years old when the accident happened, and had been the only one to survive the wreck when their car had run into another and had spun out of control.

"I wasn't too young to save them."

Bernard sighed softly and I felt his hand slide away from my back. "No, but like you said. It was dark, it was late, and these bas-cowards chose the right time in which to strike. There were many factors, Wayne, not just you. The world can be a dark, and cruel, place. This is something people learn when they're a lot older but you've learned this early. Far too early if you ask me." he got up off of the bed, and tugged out the creases in his brown suit.

"I don't like the world being so dark." I mumbled into the fabric. "It's not fair."

"No, no. The world isn't fair. Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you something..." Bernard said as he began to walk across the room towards the large windows that had the drapes pulled shut. "But you know what?" he asked as he looked over his shoulder.

"What?" I answered grumpily, sticking my head out of the bundle.

"When things are beginning to look too dark for my liking, I try to let some light in." Bernard said as he grabbed the red velvet drapes and pulled them open. Light poured into the room, chasing away the darkness, and caused my eyes to blink rapidly at the intruding light. "I find shedding some light on the situation helps."

"How can we shed light on this, then?" I asked, blinking in the light.

He tied the drapes back, pausing a moment to look out over the grounds of Scott Manor, before turning to look at me. "For one, you can get out of bed and get some food into yourself. One can't function on an empty stomach, even a little super boy like yourself. Secondly, you can live with the knowledge that your parents loved you with all their hearts and wouldn't want you staying inside forever. And lastly, you can show the world how strong you really are simply by doing these things without the use of flying, laser eyes, or anything else you have hidden up those sleeves of yours."

"Like dad wanted me to do."

"Exactly."

"It won't bring them back."

"No."

"Nothing will bring them back."

"I'm afraid not."

"But it hurts."

"Yes, for a long time it will."

"I don't want it to keep on hurting." I blinked at the bright window, feeling yet more crying coming on.

Bernard returned to the bed and sat down, and reached out to touch the back of my head with his hand. "I'm afraid it will, but over time it does get better. Remember they'll never really leave you, as long as you keep them in here." he then tapped a finger against my forehead. "And here." then he tapped my chest.

"How do I do that?"

"Remember them. Remember their love for you. As long as you do that, they'll never really leave you."

I don't know if Bernard ever picked up on just how much his words affected me that day. Then again... I think he does.

After that dark day, I started a very different life. I was now being sent to the most prestigious schools. I studied and trained hard, trying to do my parents proud. I worked hard and played harder, trying to be the best at everything I came across.

And I tried, every day, to bring light back into the world, and into Metro City.

_To be continued_


	2. Night on the Town

**Metro Knight**

**Night on the Town**

By: cgaussie & threequarterfox

Roxanne Ritchi sat at her desk, mulling over the folders stacked in front of her. Things in Metro City were far from easy, but that was the way she liked it. This job kept her on her toes, and hardly a day or night passed without _something_ interesting happening. Just recently she had gotten a call from the Warden of Metro City Asylum, informing her that Megamind had once again managed to break out of prison.

This wasn't really a huge surprise since the blue, curvy woman seemed to make a habit of doing this. She was never behind bars for long, and just how she did it continued to astound everyone around her. The woman would literally vanish into thin air and remain missing for months, sometimes even years, at a time, before eventually winding up back in jail... sometimes of her own choice. A guard would be making his rounds and find the woman curled up in her designated cell, as if she had always been there.

She just made a mockery of things, showing the lack of security in almost every building she encountered.

But why had she broken out this time? The femme-fatale hadn't gotten wind of anything interesting in the air... maybe she had just done it because she could. That was like her, since it was of her own choice of being back in prison this time around. Maybe she felt it was time to stretch her legs, don the skin-tight black leather spandex and go running off into the city like she always did.

Either way, she knew she had to let _somebody_ know and she knew just how to reach him.

The woman made her way through the office, lifting her hand and giving small waves and grins to her co-workers who milled around her. As always the office was a buzz, it never seemed to quiet down ever. In a city as large as Metro City, she could understand that. There was so much going on every single day, and night, it truly was a city that never slept no matter how late at night it was.

She entered a stairwell and quickly made her way up the stairs, pulling out a key ring from her belt buckle and used it to open one of the doors that creaked slowly as she opened it. She was now on a sectioned off part of the roof of the building, hidden behind large ducts for the air conditioning system and even a water tower left over from Metro City's earlier days.

Roxanne hummed as she approached something shrouded with a black sheet. Grabbing a corner she pulled it off with a flourish revealing a large searchlight that was pointed up towards the sky. Glancing upwards she found the cloudier parts of the night sky and aimed the search light up, angling it just right so when she turned the power on the beam of light would hit the clouds, displaying an image.

The night sky had an image implanted on it just like it had numerous times in the past. It was a huge M with what could look like stars circling it if you squinted hard enough. Once upon a time the light was just one huge star, beckoning the knight of Metro City who had showed up years ago defending her from the thugs who felt that this city, their city, was a good place to set up business. Criminals began to hate seeing the light shining in the skies, it meant he was close; he could be anywhere, ready to dish out justice when you least suspect it.

She leaned against one of the brick walls and folded her arms over her chest, wondering why she didn't stop on the way up here to grab a cup of coffee or something. Sometimes she would be standing out here for a while, and it was a cool evening tonight. Taking a breath she tested the cold, then breathed out to see if she could see her breath on the air or not.

Turned out she couldn't.

"What made you sigh?" The soft voice was so sudden it made her jump.

"Don't do that, you know I hate it when you do that!" Roxanne scolded with a smile as she looked up to see the man, clad in white, standing across from her. She grinned and put her hands on her hips. "And nothing, just a stupid thing."

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting." His voice was deep, but irritatingly unrecognisable.

"No, you were pretty fast tonight." she replied. "Which is a good thing, given the circumstances."

"Megamind is out again." Not a question, a calm statement of fact.

She narrowed an eye at him for a moment before giving a nod. "Hmmhm. Thought you'd oughta know when something like this happens. Seems you're ahead of the game as usual?"

"I was expecting her to escape, she always does at this week of the year."

"Isn't it lovely when criminals go by a certain calendar?" Roxanne asked with a smile. "But either way, just like every other time she's broken out. No trail, no signs of just how she did it. Just gone. But besides her, there's been a slight increase in criminal activity down by the docks. Looks like the usual, the Russians and the Sicilians fighting over 'land'. We're keeping on top of it, for the most part but... well. You know how bad these guys can get."

"I am aware. I'll... see what I can do." He turned slightly, to gaze over the city. "Be careful. She is in... a whimsical mood."

Roxanne had to smirk, as she reached and turned off the large light. "Isn't she always?" the light momentarily gleamed on the police badge that was hanging from her belt but vanished as she powered off the machine. When she looked up, he was gone, as if she had switched him off with the light.

~*~*~

The city was beautiful this time of night. Lights in the tall buildings lit up the night sky, and from the distance it looked like a dancing, twinkling city of nothing _but_ lights. To some it could be considered very pretty. But those people who dealt with the underbelly of the city knew just how ugly and dark it could be.

Wayne had learned that fact all those years ago when he was only eight, loosing his parents. Now though, after years of training, he was helping those who put their lives on the line every day attempting to bring order and light to Metro City. People like Roxanne, who was his one connection to the police force. She was one woman to be reckoned with. That was probably why he was so fond of her. She took no flack from anyone, which is probably why she had risen so quickly in the police ranks in such a short time.

She was well on her way to becoming the youngest police officer to become Chief of Police. And the only female Chief of Police. That was what made her such an important contact to have.

Following his gut, Wayne made his way towards Metro Docks. Chances were high that something might be happening between the two warring groups who had been arguing over what part of the city they 'owned' for years.

His mode of transport was... unique.

At first he sailed down the side of a building, suspended from a fine cable, which seemed far too narrow to support him. At the bottom he snapped a clasp and the rope retracted into the handheld gun it had unrolled from. He jumped into a remarkable car as the last of the rope folded in on itself, pulling the door after him. It took off on wide, powerful tyres.

The white car drove through the streets with expert precision; easy to do when the driver knew every single street of the city. He could probably drive with his eyes shut and still wind up in the right place. That is, if there weren't any other cars or people on the streets. The vehicle, like its driver, had many hidden abilities that one could not even comprehend coming out of a car built like this.

His eyes missed nothing in the low light. Colours he knew he could not process all that well, but he could see far more detail than anyone he had ever met. And right now his eyes were picking up that something was going on.

It was the small things. A button lying on the ground in the middle of the road. Freshly dropped. A door which was just swinging closed as his car turned the corner. A bullet hole, a fresh bullet hole, still warm, in the wall opposite.

He kept on driving, turning another corner, and was out of the car before it had stopped moving. It purred quietly to a halt, closing itself up and turning off. He was already up on the rooftops, rising through the air on another silent, impossibly thin, dart gun-propelled line.

His hearing picked up an argument, and it sounded hot headed and loud. A man was swearing expletives that nobody would speak in the presence of decent society, which quickened Wayne's movements. Suddenly he heard the sound of a body slamming against a wall, and then to the floor.

"-had to stick your nose in where it didn't belong didn't you?" demanded the first voice. "Don't gimmie nunna that crap! You know what we do to guys like you!"

Gun shots filled the air, as did the harsh cry of the man they were shooting.

Metro Man cursed quietly to himself and swung neatly out, around the corner and above the gunmen.

The victim, a man in a large coat, who already looked like he had gone through the wars and back, judging by the bruises on his face, was bleeding as he lay there on the floor. Luckily it appeared he was still alive, judging by how his hand was still moving. His attacker was already backing away from the scene of the crime, checking his gun to see how many bullets he had left.

There were none, which meant he had to reload it.

Taking hold of this advantage, Metro Man swung out over the scene, then released the rope, turning the swing into a dive and a perfect landing, an impossible distance from where he had started, and right in front of the man reloading his gun. With one hand he picked the gunman up by the neck. With the other, he pulled the gun out of his hands, holding it by the muzzle.

Of course the gunman screamed, while he had the chance, but now he was hanging suspended from his neck by the man that every criminal prayed they would never run into. He stared at Metro Man, struggling to keep his breath, eyes wide.

"I have told you before. Get out of my town." Metro Man never forgot a face. The face whimpered. He threw the gunman across the floor, so that he slid up against a wall, and then smashed the gun between his two hands, twisting it into an unrecognisable lump of metal, and threw it down, then turned to look at his rescuee.

The situation did not look good.

His bottom lip was cut open, he was sure that one of the mans eyes sockets had been broken and his eye was a black and red mess of swollen tissue and blood. The bullets, lodged in his shoulders, chest and stomach looked like they were doing their job of leeching the life out of him since his clothes, and the floor, were both staining with his blood.

Muttering to himself, he paused the world to think.

He couldn't just whisk this victim away; he had a live witness lying on the floor behind him. He could administer first aid, but if he got too close, time would continue to flow out of every bullet hole. What to do what to do... how could he save him?

In the end he knew the right thing to do was to get the man to the hospital as fast as possible. While he himself never got injured, it was something he had discovered was pretty much impossible; in his car he always had some first aid equipment. Just because he couldn't get hurt didn't meant those around him shared that ability. He picked up the bleeding man and rushed from the scene of the crime towards his car. The intelligent vehicle sensed his presence in the utility belt he wore, unlocked itself and slid open its' door.

Quickly Metro Man applied basic bandages to the wounded areas before setting the man into his passenger seat. Getting into the drivers side he reversed the car, spun around, and drove off towards the closest hospital that could take the man in.

~*~*~

After dropping the man off at the hospital, Metro Man had continued his sweep of the city. He had foiled a few robberies, and a mugging, but justice served was always a good thing. For now he stood on one of Metro City's many, many buildings and surveyed the area. Down below he could hear honking of car horns as night owls drove their way through town, and in the distance he heard the wail of a police siren.

He began to turn away when a voice came out from the darkness.

"Running away so soon, Metro _Mahn_?"

She was sitting above Metro Man on an old water tank, legs crossed, and resting both her hands on her knee. It was Megamind, but once upon a time she used to answer to the name Lucy. Now, however, that was a name she out rightly ignored whenever the man would call her that.

Now she was Megamind.

The little alien girl who had grown up in a prison had picked up many interesting habits from the inmates, and had taken on a frequency of breaking out of prison like clockwork, robbing jewellers blind, and slinking around the city like the cat she used to be teased as way back when in school.

Her wardrobe had certainly changed, too.

No longer was she stuck wearing ugly orange prison garb.

Now she wore skintight black leather that covered her entire body. It fit snugly over her head and stretched down to the soles of her feet. The material left absolutely nothing to the imagination at all as it hugged every luscious curve that her body had to offer and make no mistake, she had some lovely curves to show off. Her gloves ran all the way up to her armpits, held in place by simple buckles, and small spikes ran up the outside of each forearm. Her boots were similar with the spikes in their design; she even had them running up the spine of her incredible looking heels that added some height to her fairly short stature.

Goggles that enabled night-time viewing rested on her large forehead, and a simple belt wrapped around her thin waist. Meanwhile the only part of her skin he could see, her face, seemed to be almost illuminated in contrast to all the black around her. Of course, being the fashion conscious woman she was, she wore some makeup. Black lips pulled back to reveal brilliantly white teeth, and there was the addition of some blush to her cheeks but that was it.

"Busy night isn't it?" Megamind asked, tilting her head to the side playfully.

Metro Man sighed. "I was expecting you to turn up."

"Of course you did." she replied, jumping deftly down to land in front of him.

"I need to ask you a favour."

She arched an eyebrow curiously. "I'm listening?"

"The opening of the museum tomorrow... if you could leave it well enough alone, I would be very grateful."

Megamind smiled a small, teasing smile as she tapped her fingers on her hips. "Hmm. Well that's an interesting request... whatever gave you the idea I'd want to show up there anyway?"

"Megamind."

"I mean, now that you've _told_ me to stay away..." she grinned toothily now up at him.

"MEGAmind!"

Megamind purred in a delightful way before drawing closer to him, and ran a hand over his chest. "I love it when you use my name." she purred.

Metro Man took a step back, standing on nothing, glaring down at her. "So. Now that I've asked you so nicely to stay away?"

She continued to smile at him in that familiar way she always did, watching him keenly as she did. "Well. You didn't use the magic word... Tut. Tut." Megamind shook her head, placing her hands on her hips. "What kind of hero are you to forget something like that when requesting something of a lady?"

"Please. It's for my parents."

Megamind pursed her lips together momentarily, and sighed. "Yes... the Scotts. I'm full aware." she turned her head away to stare across the city. "This city certainly has a lot to thank them for... more than they know, hm?" she cast a glance at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"More than they'll ever know. And I don't want you to ruin it with... tawdry... _tricks_." The moment he said it, he winced. He knew exactly what he'd said wrong, but couldn't unsay it.

"Tricks? _Tricks_?" she asked venomously, turning her head so sharply he could almost hear a bone snap in her neck as she did. "You call what I do simple _tricks_? What am I, a lowly magician to you?" Megamind asked, clearly looking insulted by his poor choice of words.

"You will just cause a riot. I want my parents to be remembered as something other than chaos."

"He has a point, Miss."

The voice of Minion wasn't really a surprise to Metro Man. Whenever Megamind was around; chances were high that her faithful Minion was nearby. The little fish that lived inside a small ball of glass had grown, like his mistress, but not too much. He was still a fish but his means of getting around had drastically changed.

His body was a robot, a sleek, almost beautiful metallic cat of unknown species. It was built for speed more than strength, and when he moved you could hear soft hisses of inner pumps and faint squeaks of gears. Megamind always had been a talented one when it came to designing and creating things as a child, it had clearly manifested with her age too.

Minion jumped over to the woman in black and walked around her before peering up at Metro Man with a grin. "Long time no see, Metro Man."

"Hi little buddy. How's the new pastry recipe coming along?"

"Very well thanks for asking!" replied the fish, who accommodated the 'face' part of the cat design which was essentially his glass ball only upgraded into the shape of a feline skull. "Looks like you ran into some real trouble tonight, though. And I just don't mean Miss, either." added the fish.

"Nothing I couldn't handle. The hospital thinks they can stabilise him by morning." Wayne stared out over the city for a moment, a nervous habit.

"If only you'd been there sooner, hm?" Megamind asked, seemingly already over their conflict previous, as she walked and stood on the edge of the building. "You might've learned more or even stopped it entirely."

"You could have stopped it, as well."

"I'm not as bullet proof as you." she replied. "Besides, it isn't my business what happens between men like that."

"I sometimes wonder."

"What?"

"All that chaos you caused, during the summer storm. The mayhem when the harbour turned to jelly. Robo. Sheep. Need I go on?"

"You could if you want. I really don't mind." Megamind shrugged her shoulders. "So why are you wondering about my past exploits exactly?"

"If you cause that much destruction just on a whim, or because you got wet." He frowned, she giggled, and Minion rolled his eyes. "Then how likely is it that you're causing more chaos, behind the scenes? There is a reason so much of the police force are disappearing so fast."

"_That_ has nothing to do with me." she replied, placing a hand over her heart. "I swear on my black little heart."

"And will your heart allow me to have this one-day pax? Just one day for my parents?" Not that she had ever let this day, this day of all the years, be free of some sort of special Event she had cooked up, no matter what he did.

"Hm." she frowned as she thought. It was his parents who had allowed her to go to that horrible, wretched schoolhouse in the first place. They felt the child deserved a proper education... but by doing that they opened her to a world of emotional, and physical, hurt at the hands of her fellow schoolmates. Even the man standing before her had been there; he had turned his back on her and used her as a means to impress his friends.

She had a lot to thank them for too, but very different things. Minion nudged her side with his head and she absently petted the glass head, giving a slow sigh.

"So. Magic word. Please."

"In return for something like this you realize I'm going to have to ask something of you." Megamind pointed out.

"I... I had realised that yes." He frowned.

She smiled impishly. "Such a smart man."

"I'll put cable into your cell at the Asylum. Or you can keep a cat in there" He got an unfriendly glance from Minion. "Or... a swimming pool?"

Megamind was already rubbing her hands together as she thought of all the many different things she could ask of this man. She had the power, she had the bargaining on her side and he knew it. There were so many options, but which one was most important right now? She had enough pets waiting for her back in her home, and television was so boring.

"Mmmmmm. I don't know. What do you think, Minion?" she looked down at her faithful associated. "What would you ask for, if you could ask for anything in the world?"

"A tuna banana sandwich." replied the fish, quickly, and with a serious expression on his face.

"You're serious." Megamind said flatly.

"Oh yes." grinned the fish.

"You are so weird." she shook her head before looking back at Metro Man. "I desire no cable, cats, or pools. I appreciate the offer, though. What I do, want, though..." Megamind paused, as she seemed to drink him in, standing there in his white outfit with gold stars, and drew a gloved hand up to tap it against her bottom lip.

"Yes?" Metro Man

"You have the Rose Jewel in your possession, something your family's had for many years now. How about that?" she asked, stroking her chin as she continued to look at him in 'that' kind of way.

"You don't need that!" He snarled at her, circling around her to stand on the corner of the building. "Why do you want that?"

"Hi. I'm Megamind. Have we met? I love pretty things." Megamind said sarcastically. "Fine. If I can't have that... there's a doctor. In the asylum. He's been doing these 'tests' on the inmates in there... let's just say they're not the usual kind of tests most would allow. If I drop a name, could you drop him off a building?"

"Drop him off a..." He stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." she replied.

"I'm not going to murder someone in cold blood. I'm not going to murder someone at all. I can get him arrested though."

"Not good enough." Megamind said simply. "Knowing _this_ legal system he'd just get put away for a few years, be given therapy, end up 'rehabilitated' and let out Scott free."

"I can make sure he doesn't practice medicine again."

"He isn't practicing medicine _now_!"

"So tell me who he is!"

"He'd still be alive. I don't _want_ him living at all."

"I can't do that."

Minion sighed and nudged his head against Megamind's hip again, and she grumbled to herself as she looked away from him. Seemed some things were better left in other peoples hands. She suddenly smiled, and looked at him. "I know what I want."

"What do you want, Megamind? Me to kill someone else?"

She laughed, clapping her hands together as she did. "You're so cute when you're angry." Megamind shook her head, however. "No. I don't want you to kill anyone..."

"Good. It's got to be something reasonable."

"A date."

There was total silence. In the distance, a car alarm went off.

"A... With who?"

She _looked_ at him.

"I... A date. You will leave the opening of the Museum as just an opening... if I go on a date with you?"

Megamind dragged her index finger over her heart slowly. "Cross my heart."

"What sort of a date?"

"All out. Dinner, dancing, possibly a musical or a ballet? Walk through the gardens? You know. The type of date that women daydream about every single day. I want one of those." Megamind crossed her arms now, watching him. "I've always wanted one but, well. You know how men are with me. Even the insane ones keep their distance."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, trying to wiggle out of it?" she asked.

"I just. Okay. A date." He tried to kick start his brain and failed again.

"Don't worry. I know not to go as myself." Megamind said. "I don't want to start a 'grand night out' and end up arrested because I am who I am. And I know 'Metro Man' can't go out on a date either, can he?" she asked, eyeing him.

"No. This costume hasn't got exactly the same reputation... but..." And suddenly it seemed easy. Of course, it would be Wayne Scott taking the young lady on a night on the town. He could take her to all the right places, it would be perfectly easy to go as _Wayne._ "I can take you on a date. As Wayne Scott."

She smiled pleasantly, unaware of how dumbstruck her companion was. Minion was staring at Metro Man, mouth open in shock, and looking from him, back to his mistress, and back again.

Megamind did a fist pump, and cheered like a little girl for a moment before coughing, and recomposing herself. "Excellent." she said.

Wayne did his best not to feel like this whole plan was a bad idea.

She smiled sweetly, which was always a little disturbing since she didn't do that too often, before waving at him. "I'll let you know what day's good for me, hm?" Megamind asked before laughing and turned to her friend. "Come Minion! We have things to plan!"

"Y-yes! Of course miss!" the fish replied awkwardly. He looked back at Metro Man while Megamind jumped away, vanishing from sight as she did. Minion then took off after her, seemingly fading away into nothing just as his Mistress had.

Wayne stood half on and half off the roof, staring after them and trying to work out what on earth he had gotten himself into. He dazed enough to completely forget to stop them and take them to the Asylum.

He looked down at his white and gold costume, fringed and starred. Metro Man. That's right.

He pulled out his trusty harpoon pistol, and fired it across the street, then sailed out on the fine line, in the direction of his car.

Best go tell Bernard the news.

~*~*~

Witnessing Bernard laugh was always something that disturbed Wayne. Mainly since it was something that very, _very_ rarely happened. At hearing the news that the villainous woman Megamind had gotten Metro Man to agree to such a thing, the greying man had broken into hysterics.

It didn't last long, thankfully, and Bernard soon lifted his glasses away to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Oh my God." his voice shook. "Really? Oh my God."

"It's not funny." Wayne pulled off the calf-boot, and tried to work out what had happened to the seam around the instep. Something had torn during a routine chasing down of a criminal.

"It's hilarious. Don't deny it." Bernard said as he adjusted his glasses back to their proper location on his face, and grinned. "So. When's the big night?"

It seemed there was a nail in it... He tugged. "When it's most inconvenient to me, I don't doubt." The nail wouldn't come loose, and he tried fitting his hand down inside the boot. "After she has kept her word to me."

"Think she will?"

"She had better." At first he couldn't find it, then realised that the nail was perfectly squashed like a pop rivet on the inside of the boot, by his own bare foot. "Or I won't take her on a date." He pinched and twisted the steel like chewing gum, pulling it out and into a nail shape again. "And can you get a list of the staff members in Metro City Asylum? I think we need to review the doctors..."

Bernard nodded as he stroked his chin in thought. Megamind wanting Wayne to take her out on a date? Did she actually want him in that way, or was it just a way to make him spend a lot of money on her? All so curious. Hearing Wayne's voice drew him out of his pondering and he blinked. "Staff members in the Asylum?" he asked. "Sure, but why do you think we need a review?"

"A little... bird. Told me." The nail was finally able to be drawn through the sole of the boot. He eyed the hole regretfully. "Unfortunately not _which_ of the doctors, however."

"That will be fun, what with having over one hundred doctors going in and out of that place per year." Bernard mumbled. "But. Sure, I'll get that sorted out." he watched Wayne a moment longer, before continuing. "Worried about tomorrow, then?"

"Yes." He pulled and twisted the nail into a bow, discarding the boot. "I don't... Trust. Her." He sighed. "It had to be today."

"Of course it is. She's had a problem with you since you were children, right?" asked Bernard. "How she used to cause trouble in school all the time. She hasn't changed at all. Her boobs have just gotten bigger." he gestured with his hands over his chest before dropping them to his sides.

Wayne looked Bernard in the eye for a moment.

"Staff members. Right. On it." Bernard turned and walked from the room. "And they _have_!" He called back over his shoulder once he was out of boot-throwing range.

~*~*~

Roxanne dropped the last of the folders into the box with a flourish, snagged the half empty glass of wine, and walked to the window. It was a full moon out there, a full moon with all the crazies that this would bring. It also looked suspiciously like she had worked through until dawn again. There was a definite softening of the sky towards the east end of the city.

She sipped the wine and leaned on the window, staring out over Metro City. Her city. She had worked enough for it to be her city.

And somewhere, out in the city she could see out her window, was a man in a white suit, with a star spangled cape, working as hard as she did to help the City live.

She blinked slowly, and took another sip of wine. They only ever saw each other when they were working flat out. One day she had to find out what that man did during his off hours.

Heaven knew she could do with a date.

She turned quickly on her heel, back to the desk and the boxes of personnel folders all over it. She seemed to have it all sorted out now, who was who and what had been happening to what was left of her police force. "Divide and conquer." Sad but true. And it never seemed to stop.

She growled at the tiny pile on one corner of her desk. Those she could trust. "My kingdom for a few trustworthy men. We should just employ women." She sighed. "But that wouldn't be any better." Even the police_women_ were on the take, as far as she was able to tell.

"Do you normally make a habit of talking to yourself?"

Roxanne, and everyone else in this city, knew that voice. Turning around Roxanne discovered where she had been standing seconds ago, now sat Megamind on the open window. She hadn't even heard the window open.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh you know. Was in the neighbourhood. Thought I'd stop by, have a girlie chat, you know. That kind of thing." Megamind replied as she kicked her boots as she sat on the windowsill.

"A girlie chat? You?" Roxanne eyed her, and wondered what would happen if she pushed Megamind out the window in a mad rush. She'd probably just land on her feet...

"Heard there was some rough stuff last night." said the woman in black as she watched Roxanne carefully.

"There's rough stuff every night. The two guards you knocked out are going to be okay, by the way, thankyou for asking." They were still in hospital, but the prognosis was good.

"Well that's what they get, pulling their weapons on me. Speaking of!" Megamind clasped her hands together. "Heard one of your guys got shot. Pretty bad, too?"

_Got to start keeping a loaded crossbow in here for nights like this._ "Yes. Thankfully Metro Man was able to save him." _Or just someone on speed dial who wouldn't take three hours to get here._

"Hmm." Megamind smirked in an odd way before pressing her hands to her cheeks. "Yes. _Metro Man_. Thank heavens for him." she sighed, sarcastically, before tapping her chin. "Still. Makes you wonder who busted up your guy so badly, doesn't it?"

"Are you going to turn yourself in, Megamind?" Roxanne asked just as sarcastically.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Megamind asked. "Heavens no! I'm here for another reason."

"It would make all of our lives easier if you did." This? No. Too short. Really needed to find a... Broom? Yes. That would do nicely...

"Your ranks are diseased. More so than you think."

"I am aware of that. I've inherited a police force more cancer than police. Tell me something I _don't_ know." Just calmly pace the floor, happen to get closer... closer to the broom... here we go...

Megamind sighed, and got to her feet in the window sill. "I _was_ going to let you in on one of the latest recruits in the cancer since I feel in a giving mood but if you're going to turn janitor on me, I think I'll leave you to your little games."

Roxanne stopped, hands on hips, staring at the blue girl. "If you have information, just give it to me Megamind. I've been working all night and I'm not in the mood for games."

Megamind stood in the window, the sky turning ever so slightly blue behind her. It was a picture-perfect moment, marred by the expression on her face.

The woman in black leaned forward ever so slightly and whispered the name of a man Roxanne had known for many years now. A man who, up until hearing this, she had thought she knew.

"Hal. Stewart."

With that she gave Roxanne a small smile before doing a flip backwards, out of the window, and proceeded to fall down towards the ground below. Moments before she landed, however, something swooped in, grabbed both of her wrists, and carried her up and away, out of sight.


	3. Ties and Catburglary

**Metro Knight**

**Ties and Catburglary**

Megamind sighed as she pulled her goggles off her head, snapping the elastic. Walking across the room, her heels clicked on the carpet-free floor, and she approached a mirror to quickly check her makeup. "Hrm." she sighed as she touched her lips, before moving through to her change room where she kept all of her outfits, as well as a mannequin's head in which she hung her goggles from when not wearing them. Naturally, it was one of _many_ mannequins within her possession.

Most which had been outright stolen from department stores.

"Mistress?" Minions voice echoed from far down the hall. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the closet!" she called over her shoulder as she moved to a chair and sat in order to remove her boots. Humming to herself she unstrapped the boots and began to slide them off her feet.

"Which one?" His voice was closer now.

"East wing!" Megamind wiggled her toes once they were free of her stocking socks. "Ahhhh... that's better."

"Ah, there you are. Look! I made lemon cakes." The mechanical cat materialised carrying a tray of decoratively iced cupcakes, a wide grin on his fishy face.

"Ooo!" she clapped her gloved hands together as she looked at the cupcakes, before pausing and pulling a face. "Ooh... wait. I started my diet yesterday..."

He proffered the plate enticingly. "You can afford one. I know you can."

Megamind stroked her chin, considering the possible outcomes. Tugging one glove off entirely she scoffed. "Oh, why the Hell not?" she grinned and plucked one off of the tray Minion's suit was holding its jaws.

"So what do you plan to wear to this date, Mistress?"

Megamind made a face. "Nothing from in _here_." she glared at the contents of her closet angrily. "Everything here I've had for _ever._"

"You have the lovely little dress I made for you last escape day..."

"Ugh no." Megamind shook her head in-between bites, thoroughly enjoying the cake. Once it was gone she tugged her other glove off and walked bare foot through to her closet, quickly giving the clothes therein a once over with a scrutiny normally left for judges of an Olympic sport. "I need something... something _really_ amazing." she said as she grabbed the zipper on the front of her spandex and began to zip it down as she walked.

"It's not every day a man is blessed with my presence on a date now, is it?" she called back to her fish. "While you know I love everything you make me Minion," Megamind peeled the spandex down off of her shoulders and arms, "I think this time I might let those fashion designers _out there_ dress me this time. You deserve a break, don't you think?"

"I can make anything which you want, my Lady. And I can fit things to your size far better." Minion had a concerned look on his face.

"Oh I know you can Minion. But come on it's been ages since we've had a shopping spree, hasn't it?" Megamind asked as she finally stepped out of the spandex and found something to pull on to lounge around the lair in. She settled on a nice silky black nightie that stopped just above her knees.

"Perhaps we can buy something online?" Minion offered hopefully.

"On_line?_" Megamind scoffed as she found her slippers and walked back to the fish, picking up another cake. "Heavens no. I think it's time I suit you up to your harness again, Minion."

"Are you sure? There are so many more shops online than there are... Oh no." The harness was already dangling from her hand. "But..."

"Oh don't be such a pill Minion." Megamind crouched down in front of the fish and took the glass head into her hands and pulled him closer, and nuzzled her nose against the glass. "This is going to be _fun!_"

"That is exactly what I'm afraid of."

She only laughed in amusement, and patted his head. "Good. Being afraid means things are going to be interesting."

"I'm... afraid of that too." Minion muttered irritatedly.

Metro City had many top class fashion stores. Every other week new shipments were brought in and put on display in the windows, and ladies of all sizes would come and go looking for the dress made for them. Today, one of the best stores in the city had so far been functioning as normal. Women with cash to spend had come and had gone, and the retail assistants were taking a rare break behind the pure white desk when they saw another new customer walking in.

The dog was the first one in, his wet, black nose sniffing at the store as his big brown eyes looked around the store. Around his torso was a harness and his mistress, a curvy beautiful woman with creamy skin and wearing simple black pants and a blue top, was led into the store after him. Her hair was long and black, reaching all the way down to the small of her back, and her green eyes were hidden behind thick black sunglasses.

Her black German shepherd continued to sniff at the air and look around, ears up and alert, as was his tail.

"Hello?" Megamind, disguised of course, announced to the store people as she stared ahead.

"Doggy!" said the youngest of the staff an overexcited 19 year old.

Megamind turned her head slightly, in the general area of where the young woman stood but made it look as though she was going by sound alone. "Hello, yes! Yes, this is Selena," she grasped the harness in one hand and 'felt' for Minion's head and scratched the place between the ears of the dog. "It is okay if I bring her in here isn't it?"

"Yes, of course, Miss. Can I take your bag?" A more senior staff member ushered their blind customer in, frowning at her overexcited teenage minion.

Smiling, Megamind nodded and slid her shoulder bag off of her shoulder and held it out awkwardly; once more acting the part like a professional. You would have no idea she could actually see everything. "Thank you." she said before the other staff member helped her into the store.

Minion, meanwhile, wanted to grumble out loud at his 'name' but knew better.

"I need some help," she said to the closest staff member. "I have a date in a few nights and I'm just trying to find the right dress to suit me. Could you help me?"

"Of course, Miss. What colour... were you... Um." The two women exchanged appalled looks.

Megamind smiled. "Well, I'm told I look _really_ good in blue." she explained pleasantly.

"Blue. We have some lovely gowns in midnight blue, just in the store this week." On a more steady footing, one of the ladies bustled off to find something appropriate, whilst the other helped their unique customer to the changing rooms.

"Oh wonderful. A friend recommended your store, I've never been in here before. At least, I don't think so..." Megamind took in the sight of the place, eyes moving fast behind her dark glasses. It certainly looked classy enough. There were even some other people in there already, most of them women but there were a few men there too. Obviously some poor boyfriends dragged clothes shopping with their girlfriends.

"Do you want Selena to come in with you, Miss, or does she wait outside?" Megamind was being ushered to the largest change room.

"I feel kind of... well. Blind without her." Megamind admitted, giving an awkward smile. "She can sit in the corner, she's good like that."

'Selena' looked up at the two women and if a dog could have an expression it would be one of a sour puss.

"Aw, she looks like she knows when we're talking about her."

"She's very clever after all." Megamind replied, reaching down to feel for the dogs head and petted it a few times. "She knows her name." the dog tilted its head into the caress, since Minion _did_ like it when Megamind would pet him like this. Even if he couldn't feel it, the meaning behind it was well appreciated even in this type of situation.

Selena whined gently, and sat down quietly, at her mistress' order, at the curtain in front of the change room. The other attendant walked quickly up, with several dresses over her arm. "Some of these aren't completely blue..."

"No?" Megamind asked as she reached out and was offered one of the dresses to feel for the fabric, and of course get a good look at it though the girls around her didn't know she could see. "Oh, I like this fabric... it breathes well doesn't it?"

"Yes, Miss, it's linen. Perfect for summer."

"What kind of straps..." she 'felt' along the dress to the top and was inwardly pleased to discover it didn't have any. "Ooh. I haven't worn a dress like this in a long while..."

"It's a very classic evening wear style, Miss. This sort of dress never goes out of fashion."

"I just hope I look good in it." Megamind mumbled as she pulled the dress closer to her frame, testing to see if it would fit her by tugging the material to her front. "Thank you I can manage quite fine in here by myself."

"Of course. Call if you need any help." the assistant said before leaving the changing room and pulling the curtain shut behind her.

Megamind turned to Minion and held the dress up. "So what do you think?" she asked in a whispered tone before beginning to undress to try on the new clothing.

"It's a bit... um. Short? Miss." Minion whispered.

"I know." giggled Megamind as she pulled her skirt and shirt off and began working the new dress on.

"Don't you want something with a bit more... fabric? On the first date." Minion fussed as quietly as he could.

The alien sighed as she reached for the zip on the back and slowly pulled it up. "Minion, knowing my luck it will be my _only_ one." she whispered back, attempting to not sound not terribly upset. "I want to look nice."

"Well, Mistress, I'm not sure it presents the right impression."

Megamind turned her head and stared at Minion over the glasses. Pursing her lips together it looked as though she wanted to say something, but seemed to second guess herself and didn't. "Hm." she said before just glancing at the mirror, at her reflection.

"Are you sure that's the right size?" Minion fussed.

The alien turned around and looked at herself from a different angle. "Maybe." she mumbled quietly. "It _is_ tight around my boobs."

"How are you going in there?" A cheerful, bossy voice called through the curtain.

"I've got the dress on, but I think it might be a bit tight." Megamind answered back. She reached out and felt for the fabric of the curtain, tugging it open.

"Oh, dear, yes. I can get the next size up for you. And there's a wrap which is meant to go with it..." A completely transparent purple wrap was passed across.

Megamind paused for a moment, considering. Then she reached, feeling for the woman's arm. She found the wrap in her hands and tugged it free. "Thank you, yes. I'd like one size up just so it won't do something like rip when I sit down somewhere..."

She paused again. The idea of her dress ripping in the presence of Metro Man wasn't exactly a horrible idea. _Hmm._

"I'll just get the next size for you. And there's another in green..." The woman bustled away. Megamind quietly closed the curtain again.

"Ugh I look horrible in green." Megamind grumbled to herself as she tugged at the dress again, before zipping it down and off to replace it with another one. This one had a ruffle affect to it, and while the front was short the tail was longer and covered well past her shins.

"Green can bring out the colour of your eyes, Mistress..." Minion whispered hopefully.

"I don't know..." Megamind mused as she began trying on the second dress, the one with the ruffles.

"Oh, Mistress, that one is even shorter at the front..."

Megamind couldn't help but snort a laugh at her fishes complaints. "I know." she purred as she did a quick spin in the dressing room. "I think I love this one more than the last!"

Minion looked worriedly at the curtain, and whispered "Mistress, what sort of a date IS this?"

"Are there different types?" Megamind honestly asked, giving her friend a look.

"Yes." Minion hissed. "Is it coffee, or dinner, or a movie? It's in _public_, isn't it? Yes, of course of course it is."

"Here we go." The lady was back.

"One size larger in blue, one size larger in green... and there's this cute little skirt you could try instead..."

For a fraction of a second it almost looked like the young woman was glaring at her dog.

"Oh thank you..." Megamind felt for the dresses and took them into her arms. "I was just trying another one on, what do you think? I like the feel of the ruffles..."

She meanwhile pointedly ignored her 'dog' who watched them with her ears drooped.

"Oh, yes, that looks lovely miss. Do you have some shoes to show off then?"

Behind her attendant, Megamind could see a young man furtively looking at her legs. He was holding three large shopping bags and a bunch of flowers, and his eyes were at about her knee level.

Choosing a moment to have _some_ kind of fun Megamind took a few steps forward, now standing just outside the change room and gently gripped the ruffles of her dress and ever so slightly lifted them.

"Well, I do have some nice black sandals that come up to my knees at home, do you think they would work with a dress this short?" she asked.

"Sandals? Are you sure..." The attendant asked uncertainly.

The young man gazed delightedly at her knees, looked up to check her dark glasses, and grinned.

"Well they're Alexander McQueen Gladiator knee high sandals." Megamind pointed out, choosing now to do a careful turn around as she did. "Cost an arm and a leg."

Selena gave a nervous whining yawn.

Megamind turned her head in the direction of the dog and walked back to her. "What is it baby, you need to go outside and do business?" she asked in a sing-song kind of way.

Selena snorted and turned her back, laid down on her belly and sighed.

"I guess not." Megamind said before standing up and turning to the lady, or in her general direction, once more continuing her charade as a blind woman. "This feels very nice. Have you got anything with slightly less... back?" Behind her, Selena whined.

Three hours, and after trying on practically every dress in the store, Megamind paraded delightedly out of the shop with the first two dresses in suit bags over her arm. 'Selena' led her quickly from the boutique, whining as they left.

"What do you say we go look at handbags, now, Selena?"

"Where is my speech?" The worried voice echoed down the corridor. "Has anyone seen my speech?"

Seconds later a dark-skinned man came rushing around the corner of an arched door way, holding up a few printed pages. "Here, it's here." the man approached the large wooden desk of the mayor, and held the papers out to him. "You left it in the kitchenette again, sir."

"I always eat when I'm nervous." The Mayor took the papers from his aide and shuffled through them nervously.

"I can always make you your favourite cheese sandwich sir you know that." replied the young man before pausing to straighten the name plate on his boss' desk since it had become slightly shuffled.

"No time, no time. Is this the right speech? Didn't we rewrite this paragraph?"

"That is the re-worked paragraph, sir. See, it starts differently."

The Mayor mopped his brow with his handkerchief. "Thank you, Steve, I don't know how I'd manage without you."

"Neither do I." grinned the man before walking around the big desk to look out over the city, and at the museum that would be revealed to the city. "The weather's certainly taken a turn for the better. Maybe a sign of good things to come?" he glanced back over his shoulder at the Mayor.

"I certainly hope so." The Mayor put his handkerchief back in his pocket for the umpteenth time. "Is Mr Scott here yet? I'm told he will be cutting the ribbon. And he's _late_."

Steve lifted a pager from his belt pocket and examined it for a moment. "No I'm afraid not yet. But he should be here any minute now."

"Okay. So. Speech. We have that. Huge crowd. We have that. Is there anything else we were meant to remember?"

"Media vans are gathered too." Steve added helpfully in that lovely English accent of his as he glanced out the window once more.

"Okay. Check my tie. Is my tie okay? Alright. And I have my speech. Oh dear." The Mayor fumbled for his asthma puffer.

Steve hummed as he returned to the Mayor's side and checked his tie. "Just a little bit crooked."

Meanwhile...

"Your tie's crooked. Honestly. You can defend the city but you can't tie a tie right?" Bernard asked.

"I swear they come out of the packet like that." Wayne raised his chin higher as Bernard tugged at his collar and tie. "It's not my fault."

"Hmmhmm. Of course it isn't. It's the tie's fault. Curse you, Italian silk, your evil plot to make Mr. Scott look the fool almost worked." smirked the man as he fixed the tie, and folded down Waynes collar. "There. All set."

"Really?" Wayne turned to look in the car mirror one last time. "Okay. Okay."

"You're not nervous, are you?" Bernard asked as he adjusted his own tie in the mirror, but it didn't really need to be fussed with at all.

"I'm just a bit worried that Lucy won't keep her promise..."

"Come now. You think she'd jeopardize a date with you?"

"I think that she'd happily lull me into a false sense of security, and frankly, why _would_ she want a date with me?"

Bernard gave Wayne a judging look. "You're kidding, right?"

"She's never wanted one before. And it's just another opportunity for her to either out me for who I am, or put herself in a position of power."

"So she's lulled you into a false sense of insecurity? What a dastardly plan."

"I don't trust her."

"Yes well. Not many would trust somebody like her." Bernard said. "But who knows, maybe this is a genuine attempt at something for her."

"Or maybe it's yet another genuine attempt at ruining things." Wayne pulled at his collar, and his tie went crooked again.

"And maybe-oh God damn it. Again?" setting his hands on his hips Bernard huffed. "Stop playing with it!" he reached up and re-fixed Wayne's tie for the umpteenth time. "I'm just saying. You should give her just a small chance. Not saying to lay down on the floor and let her walk all over you, unless you're into that sort of thing and if you are it's not _my_ business, but at least give the girl some kind of chance. But if she ends up-"

"It's too tight."

"Sorry." he loosened it. "But if she ends up giving you a genuinely nice night out, you should just let it happen." Bernard stepped back.

"I intend to give her a night... on the town." Wayne replied, his voice suddenly low and very serious. "Ah, here we are." The car pulled to a quiet halt.

"I'm not sure how to take that tone of voice from you but I'm going to genuinely hope it's a good tone. Break this little kitty's heart and the whole city might suffer for it. Oh good yes! We're here." Bernard opened the car door and climbed out first, holding his hand up to cover his face from the bright sun.

"Well done James, you got us here almost on time. Just a little bit late." Bernard said through the drivers window.

James rolled his eyes at Bernard.

"Yes, I know, this traffic..." Bernard gazed around. "I'll call you when we're set to escape this show."

James waited until Wayne had gotten out of the car before pulling away, driving off to find somewhere to either park or get some drive thru. Bernard watched him leave before turning to Wayne, who was just reaching for his tie again. He actually slapped the taller man's hand. "No. Bad billionaire playboy. Bad."

"Sorry."

"I'm sure. Now come on, the mayor's probably sweating a swimming pool waiting for you."

"Indeed."

The two men walked up the impressive front steps of City Hall and walked through the huge crowd towards the Mayors office.

"Okay. I think I do need one of those cheese sandwiches." The Mayor looked at Steve with pleading eyes. "Without the crusts?"

Steve raised an eyebrow, but smiled either way. "Without the crusts, sir. Of course. Won't be too long." with that the dark-skinned man left the mayor's round office and headed off towards the kitchenette.

Just as he rounded the corner Wayne and Bernard arrived, and entered the mayor's office. "So I see no reason why to keep fiddling with that..." Bernard was just saying as Wayne made his way through the door. "Do it again and I won't fix it."

"Ah! Here you are. Here you are. Perfect. What took you so long?" The Mayor stood and grasped the hand of Wayne Scott. "Never mind. Never mind. We're almost ready to go."

Bernard glanced around the room before peering out the huge windows of the round office and looked across the way to the new museum, and the gathering crowds. Looked like it was all set to be yet another crowd media blitz... and he too wondered if a leather-wearing woman of mystery and evil would be crashing the party.

He hardly listened to the two men talking about the Museum of American History that was to be opened that day, and how it was of course being dedicated to the memory of the Scotts. It was all a fairly important building since it had been in development for years and had seen its fair share of set backs thanks to criminals stealing or destroying parts of the building when it was still just being built.

But now there it stood, pristine and white, awaiting for the big red ribbon at its doors to be snipped by the Mayor. Turning his head Bernard saw the two men beginning to head out of the room and he followed obediently, hoping that there weren't too many photographers at this thing. He hated seeing his face being printed in the newspaper as a person in the background.

So it wasn't long until Bernard was there standing slightly behind other men and women of importance while the Mayor was going on at length about what Wayne Scotts' parents had brought to the city. How their finances had brought up to date medicines, establishments, and education for children. How that their deaths helped shake up the hunt for criminal activity, and all other kind of lovely stuff that he could do without listening to.

He tuned out.

The Mayor introduced other people to do speeches also, and Bernard's eye was caught by a reflection on a window. Something... moving.

Something blue.

"Mistress, this is a really bad idea."

"Is it?" Megamind asked as she was picking up a diamond about the size of her thumb nail. Pulling a handy, tiny eye piece she set it to her right eye and inspected the diamond to see if it was genuine. Most museums didn't carry real diamonds, but it seemed this one was. How lovely of them! "Ooh helloo..." she cooed before putting the diamond into a pocket before moving onto another.

"Yes, Mistress, you said you _promised_... Oh dear." Minion carefully inched around a corner, following Megamind. "You said you promised Metro Man that you wouldn't ruin his opening."

"I'm being good aren't I? I'm not out there bringing attention to myself. And really Minion you know how I get around this stuff." Megamind purred as she paused to look at some mannequins that were dressed up in look-alike outfits that Bonnie and Clyde wore when they were killed. The car behind them looked genuine enough, but she knew it was a fake. "Honestly I could be doing much worse."

"But you won't get the _date_..." Minion fretted.

She shrugged. "There's a lot of jewel thieves in this town, I'm not the only one."

She didn't want to say it, but she had the strong inclination that Wayne would find a way to work his way out of it. He was the kind of man who would show up to parties with up to four beautiful women on his arm, after all. You don't get the name Billionaire Playboy by staying home alone, did you?

"So you don't plan on letting him know?" Minion sighed in relief, then his breathe caught again. "It's still a bad idea. He is _going_ to recognise those diamonds."

Megamind groaned and rolled her eyes before stopping by to pick up one more little trinket for herself and quickly checked it with her eye piece. "Oh yes because men have such an eye for detail don't they?" she asked sarcastically before putting the bracelet into her bag. "All right. Done. Now we can go. Happy?" she asked.

"I'd be a lot happier if we had not come in the first place." Minion sulked. "So where's our exit?"

"The way we came in." Megamind replied as the two began to backtrack through the museum whose up to date security system was temporarily down thanks to one of Megamind's many little creations that helped scramble electric currents in whatever she wanted. Being a genius inventor meant she was always coming up with new things to help her in her criminal activities, but she could never carry too much less it weigh her down since Megamind was known for her catlike reactions to situations she normally found herself in.

But even her fast reflexes couldn't prepare her for what happened next. It appeared that the idiotic Mayor's speech wasn't nearly as long as she had anticipated. Just as she and Minion were making it around the corner, the front doors had slid open and the crowd of onlookers were walking in. It didn't take long until there were gasps and cries of surprise, and the familiar flash of cameras clicking her photo as she stood there.

Well damn.

"Megamind!" gasped the Mayor.

"Mayor!" she gasped back, just as shocked. "Sorry for gate crashing the party so early but I just love getting first in the door for a bargain."

"Someone call Metro Man!"

"Someone call the Police!"

"What has she stolen?"

"Grab her she's getting _away_!"

Despite the small number of people brave enough to advance on her, Megamind casually pulled something out of her back pocket and waved to the crowd, blew a kiss, and threw whatever it was she had retrieved down on the floor. The instant it hit the ground black smoke erupted from it, growing from seemingly nothing, and flooded the whole area with thick choking smoke.

She, meanwhile, pulled on her goggles to clear her vision, and made her escape with Minion at her heels. The masses continued to cry out in alarm as she made her escape.

She and Minion bucketed out of the back entrance, laughing hysterically. Standing in the alley was Metro Man, his hands on his hips.

"Megamind." He said her name so calmly, his blue eyes showing the fury within.

Megamind lifted her goggles off of her eyes and smiled back. "Metro Man." Minion, meanwhile, slinked away from the two, his tail hanging down between his hind legs.

"We had a deal."

"I'm also the bad girl." she said simply. "Keeping deals is kind of against my nature."

"So this... date. It was just to keep me guessing? It meant nothing?"

She looked at him for a long moment before scoffing. "Boys are very easy to play with, I've discovered."

"Fine. Right." Metro Man advanced, and changed his voice to a more heroic tone. "Megamind, you cannot get away with this." Voices at one end of the alley betrayed the Media in the direction of her escape route.

"No, I suppose I can't." she replied quietly, gripping the bag at her hip tightly as if it was a life line. "So, this dance again, Metro Man?"

"It's the only dance I'll be taking you to." He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. "It's back to the asylum for you, Megamind."

"A girl takes what she gets." Megamind replied loudly, and shot an angry glare at the photographers who were just making it around the corner, snapping shots of the two rivals in a very familiar pose.

The view of the group fell away very quickly, and Megamind was grateful she wasn't as liable to motion sickness as she used to be in her youth. But either way, being flown through the air by Metro Man was always something she tended to look forward to. Even if it normally meant a first class one way ticket back to the Asylum, and the Warden.

This time the flight was relatively short. Metro Man took the bag from her as he landed, whilst she was still off balance, and actually even roughly shoved her towards the doors. It was most ungentlemanly of him.

Even his most gentlest of shoves was normally enough to do damage, and today Megamind yelped as the ground leaped up to meet her as she landed on the asphalt. Beyond the big gates she could already hear a siren wailing, the usual sound that always alerted when the doors were opening. No doubt the orderlies were already on their way to collect her. Groaning she sat up and looked over her shoulder to stare up at him.

"The date is off, Megamind." He looked incredibly upset. It was usually so hard to break through his shell like this.

She narrowed her eyes at him, and rubbed against her cheek with the back of her hand. "Don't worry. I'm sure your super-model groupies will be there to make you feel all better."

"I guess I never should have worried about this date. We'll never go out on a date. You're scum, Megamind."

The blue woman stared at him, eyes wide with shock at first. All through their years of fighting like this, even way back in their school days together when the children would taunt and tease her, the word 'scum' had never been thrown at her. It punctured her unusually thick hide and hit somewhere painful and she for once, didn't have a snappy comeback. Instead her eyes narrowed into dangerous acidic green slits and she just glared at him, hands becoming fists.

She was suddenly roughly hauled to her feet by two men in prision uniforms. Megamind kept her narrowed eyes on Metro Man even when they forced her to turn and dragged her away, and only looked away when she couldn't look at him anymore.

Metro Man stood at the gates to the Asylum for long minutes after all sign of life had gone inside. His face was grim, his eyes blue fire, his hands fists. Finally he shot straight up into the air, disappearing.

"Back so soon Megamind?"

The blue alien, normally full of witty and snarky remarks, said nothing as she buttoned up the orange prison garb she had been made to turn into. Once more her black leather clothing had been removed and taken away to storage, leaving her in the itchy, ugly clothes she hated more than anything.

"And not as talkative today. Okay." The Warden checked a computer screen. "I see you've been having an interesting time today. Perhaps a rest will be in order." Her steel grey hair was up in a ponytail today, Megamind noticed.

She shrugged, and waited for the guards to open the cage she had been changing in and strap her wrists together. Same thing every, single, time. "Perhaps." she finally said.

"We have filled the security loophole you used to get out of last time. Your cell should be nice and comfortable." The Wardens shoes clicked on the floor as she walked along the hall.

Megamind gave a small laugh, shutting her eyes as she did, while she was led alongside behind the Warden. "Ah, a challenge..." she sighed before looking at the woman who had been a permanent fixture in her life ever since she landed in the asylum all those years ago. "Trying a new style today, Warden?" she asked.

"A change is as good as a holiday, Megamind. How is Minion doing?"

"I wouldn't know about a change, or a holiday so I can't comment." shrugged the alien before sighing. "And he's fine. I'm sure he would send his best, if he knew I'd end up back here so soon."

"His cooking is as good as ever?"

"He's brilliant, of course." Megamind smiled, hoping Minion really would be all right. He had the Cat Bots to keep him company, so that would keep him occupied as well... "How about the food _here_? Has it improved any?"

"It will be just like home, Megamind." The hall came to an end at a series of barred doors, the outermost one with a nook for various computer screens and a nervous young tech. He shook in fear as they passed.

Megamind made a point to stare, point blank, at the young tech. It was a wide eyed stare for intimidation purposes only, and felt a shiver of triumph when she saw him back away from her. She smiled privately before walking in after the Warden as Metro Man's words suddenly echoed in her mind again.

"Just as you left it." The Warden spun the chair with one hand. The scorch marks from her most recent escape were neatly painted over, so she was not entirely correct. "Is there anything you want to tell me, Megamind?" She turned and looked at the thin blue alien, her arms crossed.

She stood there for a moment, looking hesitant. It was rare for her to open up anything personal to this woman, but it seemed there was always a first time for everything. Sighing, Megamind looked down at her cuffed wrists. "A... am I scum?" she asked quietly.

The warden looked surprised, for a moment, she tilted her head for a moment, and Megamind felt her eyes burning a hole right through to her soul. "You're a villain, Megamind, and you'll always be a villain."

"But that isn't scum, is... is it?" Megamind lifted her head finally and tried to look the woman in the eyes but felt that she couldn't. Those steely eyes had been staring down at her all her life, and she still hadn't found the strength to withstand that glare even in her wildest dreams. "I am a villain, I've been one my whole life but that doesn't make me scum does it?"

"People are judged by their actions. You've acted like a villain from the first day I met you... but have you acted like scum?"

Megamind was once again looking at her hands, clenched tightly within the shackles that still locked her wrists close together. She didn't know how to answer that question... she didn't think she did. While she did like causing trouble for people, stealing the pretty sparkly things and other associated actions she never thought that she would be considered scum.

"It's never too late to change your ways, Megamind."

"I don't think I'd know how to even stop being what I am." Megamind finally admitted. "This is... this is my destiny."

The Warden looked around the small circular room. "This... looks more like a waiting room than your destiny. Perhaps you can use it to think about your decisions."

Megamind said nothing as the woman finally removed the shackles from her wrists and watched her walk out of the circular room and that thick iron door slid shut behind her. Turning away from the door Megamind took in the sight of the oh-so-familiar room, and glared angrily at the happy painted walls that stared at her. Those frolicking animals mocked her every single day, being free, doing what they wanted without facing any kind of consequence. Kittens played with balls of wool innocently, and deers leaped above it all.

She suddenly screamed out loud and leaped at the wall, and scratched her nails against the faces of the white rabbits in the black hats before sliding to the floor and lay there, shoulders shaking as tears that wanted to shed stubbornly refused to appear. Looking down at her hands she sadly stared at her ruined nails, and shut her eyes tightly as she rested her head against the wall.

If this was what she was destined for, she hated it.

_To be continued_


	4. Blood on Leather

**Metro Knight**

**Blood on Leather**

**By cgaussie & threequarterfox**

The oven made a cheerful bell-like noise, and Minion turned to open the door. His seventh tray of cakes, these ones chocolate chip. The first tray was just ready to cover with frosting. Plan Cupcake was in action.

Hovering above the table, a Cat Bot eyed the multiple trays of baked goods with great interest. They had tiny metallic ears on top of their domed heads, and long spindly legs hung beneath their metal bodies. At the back of them, though, were long tails that could be used to grip things. Its jaws were small, and a large domed head revealed sparks of electricity that represented the mind that worked behind the little robots that Megamind had created years ago. They were a mix between pets, minions, and security.

Last time she counted she had at least over one hundred of them, and they always turned up somewhere throughout the evil lair.

"Mowg?" it asked, its singular eye blinking as one of its long arms reached down to possibly steal or just bat at one of the cupcakes.

"No!" Minion whipped out his over sized tail, and the little cyborg retreated.

"Fzzzztttt!" it hissed cybernetic-ally at him before joining a few of its fellow Cat Bots in a high corner of the ceiling.

"These are for getting the Mistress out of prison. We can't eat them." Minion placed the final tray of Plan Cupcake on the table and started emptying out the chocolate chip cakes onto a cooling rack.

Another Cat Bot approached and curled itself into a seated position on the corner of the table, watching with interest. "Mowg?" it asked, brain sparking. 'Mommy' hadn't been around recently, and it was something the Cat Bots picked up on easily.

"You want your Mommy back, don't you? Don't you?" Minion tickled the Cat Bot in passing and missed being snapped at by a hairsbreadth. "I sent at least ten of you out to finish the other half of the project, where are they?"

As if they had been waiting for him to question them, ten Cat Bots with various colour head-domes came flying into the room. The air filled with their electronic 'mowgs' as they circled excitedly above Minion.

"Here we go. Okay, do you have the umbrellas? And did you finish the welding?"

Three of them proudly dropped umbrellas onto the floor while another was rolling along the ground now, batting at the welder playfully. While they knew when a job was on it was time to concentrate on work, they also knew once a job was done it was playtime. And for Cat Bots, play things were anything that wasn't tied down.

And if it was tied down they'd claw, or bite, through the ropes to play with it.

Minion reached into the sink and retrieved four large round cookie cutters, then rolled one out of the door.

A few curious Cat Bots followed it, mowging as they went.

It had been a few days now, and Megamind was still in jail. This was peculiar, since normally the woman would slink out of jail expertly and return home after a day, tops. This time, however, it seemed as though she wasn't making any attempts at breaking out at all.

It was worrisome. Minion was determined to get to the bottom of it all. He rolled another cookie cutter out of the door, and went back to covering cakes in thick bright coloured frosts.

Well, whenever Megamind would return, she'd have a boatload of cookies to enjoy.

* * *

><p>"Mistress?" Minion wandered through the smoke, carrying a few more of the Batch Three cupcakes just in case anyone turned out not to be Mistress. "Mistress? I seem to have been turned around..." <em>Lot of smoke<em>...

A near by inmate, who knew this ordeal would be coming, waved his hand at some smoke. "She's been moved to the Western block, fish guy. New room 'n everything. Better hurry."

"Oh. Ah. Thank you." Minion turned and dashed away. _Western block? Snazzy._

He hurried as quickly as he could, and soon found a round white dome like room sitting at the end of a long corridor. Outside it was a console with various screens and keyboards making up majority of it. Had the jail made this especially for his mistress? Going by a profile x-ray vision of her head, and her large brain, had to be. "Mistress?"

No answer. Was she in there? Was this old data? He tried various buttons, and none opened the door. A fire alarm stuttered to a halt in the distance, and Minion heard half of Batch Two of the cupcakes go off in rapid succession. _Running out of time._

The door had a port-hole window, so surely if she was in there she would be looking out to find out what was going on. Minion went to the window and peered in.

There she was, lounging on the white chair situated in the centre of the brightly coloured room. She had her back to the door, and judging by the scratch marks on all of the faces of the happy little animals that were painted on the walls, Megamind was not in a happy mood.

Very slowly she rolled onto her back, and turned her head to look at Minion. For a moment the fish was worried she had been drugged. She stared at her friend sadly before looking away.

_Not good. And running out of time.__  
><em>  
>Minion made a snap decision, and slammed his mechanical paws on the buttons. Something shorted out, and the door opened drunkenly. "Come <em>on<em>, Mistress, we are leaving _now._" He leaped into the room, grabbed his mistress by the scruff of her prison scrubs, and started dragging her out the door.

She was quite limp. She didn't struggle, although her posture really didn't seem to be designed to help him pull her through the narrow opening into the smoke filled outer chamber. Minion dragged her further, carrying her like a cat carries a kitten. _Maaan she's light. I don't think she's eaten a thing since she came in here._

Megamind coughed, finally, as they entered the rest of the jail but still made no attempt to assist her friend in escaping from prison.

_What is the point of it all?__  
><em>  
>She finally sighed and lifted her head to peer upwards. "Minion. Minion... I should just stay here..." Megamind mumbled, grabbing her friend for support as she tried to get to her feet while still being dragged like a kitten.<p>

"Not on your life, Mistress. I don't think you've eaten at all here. And you need to keep your fluids up..."

"I hate their food here." she grumbled, but her stomach suddenly grumbled even louder, verifying Minion's fears. "But what's the point? Out there..."

"You get me to make food like here all the time, Mistress." Minion manoeuvred her through another doorway, and then carried her down a long steep staircase. "And I've made cupcakes at home, you love cupcakes."

"I do love cupcakes." she whispered shyly, as if she wasn't a super villainous woman but a little girl all over again. "Wait. Hold up... let me get up..."

"So long as you're not trying to go back up those stairs." Minion let go of her, and reached up to jimmy the door ahead of them open with the long claws on his suit

Megamind got to her feet quickly and dusted the bottom parts of her orange prison garb. "There..." she glanced up those stairs; still feeling as though leaving was a mistake. What was awaiting her out there? A hero who wanted nothing to do with her, cops who hated her, and stores she repetitively stole from.

In hind sight though... Minion was out there. So was her Cat Bots.

"There we go, Miss. Now we just need to make a bit of a dash. Do you want to climb on my back?" There was the sound of alarms out of the doorway, and a steep stairwell upward.

She nodded. Minion could run incredibly fast thanks to the streamlined body she gave him that mirrored the body structure of leopards. And she didn't have a lot of energy, so running under her own steam was probably a bad idea. "Yes, good idea." she climbed up onto his back, and wrapped her arms tightly around the neck of the cat body.

"Okay. Hold on tight." Minion dashed straight up the staircase. Behind him, where he had abandoned the rest of Batch Three, there was a series of explosions, ending in a rumble as the building picked up the oomph. They shot out of the staircase at top speed, bolted across the courtyard and straight over a fence, as fast as a locomotive. Minion swung around in his bubble and checked his load.

Megamind was still there, and her eyes were shut tightly as Minion ran to safety. Behind them were shouts of the officers, and the sirens wailed louder still.

Suddenly bullets hit the grass around the two, causing Megamind to cry out in alarm.

Muttering angrily to himself about amateurs, Minion dodged the bullets, ran straight up the wall of a building, Megamind still attached to his back as if with superglue, and then climbed in a window.

Then the worst thing Minion could imagine happened. There was one final bang of a bullet just as they were getting out of range, and Megamind screamed in pain. One of her arms loosened immediately, and she began to slip off of his back. Megamind strained against the pain suddenly burning up her right arm, and desperately tried her best to keep her left arm tight around Minion's neck.

Minion ran straight through what was turning out to be some sort of office block, and out the window on the other side, then jumped down onto the ground and continued running.

"I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding. I'm _bleeding_." Megamind was whimpering quickly as the panic began to set in. She'd never been shot before. The shock was rushing through her now, as quickly as the blood that was running down her arm.

"I'm going as fast as I can. The car is around here somewhere. _Hang on_Mistress."

"What do you think I'm doing?" she asked fretfully. If she didn't hang on any tighter she'd go falling off his back entirely.

"Well, don't let go." Minion cornered wildly, almost throwing his Mistress off his back in his haste, and bolted towards something which looked more familiar. _Car park. Good. Fine. Car Park. Now... Car?_"Almost there!" The sounds of pursuit were slowly disappearing into the distance.

His one saving grace was that the Invisible Car had been parked in front of a poster advertising some new sales the largest store in Metro City was having. The space in particular appeared empty, but the closer Minion got to it, the outline of the faithful car came into view.

Megamind was whimpering still, and tears were now running down her face. "Shot. Shot like... like a common criminal... oh _God_..."

"Amateurs. Rank amateurs, Mistress. They didn't even seem to realise the cupcakes were non-fatal..." Minion opened the door, gathered her up and deposited her inside the car.

She hissed as he set her into her passenger seat, and grabbed at her bleeding arm to put some pressure on the bleeding wound. "Minion, oh Minion..." she hiccuped as the tears continued to stream down her face. "Why do I do this? Why?"

"You'll be fine. Just stay calm, Mistress, I'll get you out of here." Minion shut the door, leaped the car in a single bound, and opened the other door. "They can't see us now, we're invisible. Just hang on, okay?"

* * *

><p>Bernard sighed as he made his way across the large open living area of the manor. Things had been especially grim around the Scotts' Manor since what happened at the opening day of the museum. Wayne had responded in his own way to the broken promise, and it almost seemed as though Megamind was entering a state of rehabilitation in the jail before her break out the night previous.<p>

Now here they were at square one all over again.

He made his way into the Laundromat and inspected the work being done by the girls. There was a hamper where 'miscellaneous' objects that wouldn't be washed that was set to the side and Bernard normally inspected it to find what Wayne forgot in his pockets. Most of the time it was his keys, wallet, money, or watches.

Today he found a bag. A small black bag that looked familiar. "Huh." he lifted it before carrying it out from the Laundromat and began his trek up the stairs to check in on Wayne that morning.

The bag was unexpectedly heavy, for such a small item. A chinking sound. More than one... metallic object...

"What have you got there, Bernard?"

"Found it in the 'not to wash' hamper." Bernard reported as he opened up the bag and peered inside. Seconds later a brilliant blue light suddenly illuminated his face. Bernard blinked in surprise and lowered the bag, before lifting his hand to shift his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. "...okay...?"

"Not to wash? Oh. I see. Leather." Wayne took the bag from him while he rubbed his eyes. "Oh. It's... that."

"It flashed me." Bernard muttered as he stuck his hand into the bag and retrieved the only non-jewellery related item in the bag and held up a watch.

"I guess it must be booby trapped for anyone who isn't her." Wayne opened the bag up and looked inside. "Just a few pieces of jewellery."

Bernard inspected the watch, how it had three smaller faces inside the main one. "Hm." he turned it over before setting it aside on the table. "Oh well. So. Are you feeling any better today?" he asked, looking up at the taller man as he sorted through the jewellery.

"You keep asking me that." Wayne pulled the bag shut again, and put it on the table next to the watch. "It's not going to change." He turned on his heel to walk towards the wide windows, and stare outside.

"So you're just going to mope?" Bernard asked.

"Do you have a better idea?" Wayne glowered at the window.

Bernard frowned slightly at the taller man, and folded his arms. "Don't take that attitude with me."

Wayne opened his mouth to say something more, looked sidelong at Bernard, and stopped. Then he sighed and threw himself into the nearest armchair. "I don't see what other attitude to have."

Sighing, Bernard walked around the armchair to stare out the large window. "Well. She hasn't caused any trouble recently. And from what the Warden reported, she was actually kind of sorry this time."

"She's just coming up with something worse. And... And I thought..." Wayne growled in frustration.

Bernard raised an eyebrow at him.

"And it's not like that!" Wayne picked at the arm of the chair. "It isn't."

"No?" Bernard asked.

"No. Of course it isn't. I'm... I'm going to go and work on the Metromobile." Wayne stood up and walked out of the room.

"Hmm hmm." Bernard watched him go and rolled his eyes. "Boy's in denial up to his eyeballs."

"I heard that!"

"You were meant to!"

"It's not true!"

"Lies!" Bernard sang.

"All Lies!"

Bernard couldn't help but laugh in amusement before getting to his feet and followed Wayne, grabbing the watch as he did.

The mansion was built over the most incredible cave system. First both of them went down normal marble staircases... but then they walked through a door always kept locked, a small service entrance which the servants were paid not to ask about. Then the staircases started properly. Down and down. Bernard would have preferred to use the elevator, but the noise it made was too distinctive. They tended to use the stairs except in emergencies.

Caves. Bernard looked out over the wide slightly sloping floor below them, dotted with half finished projects. It looked a lot like an evil lair. The world of a vigilante. At least it was well lit.

"Lovely place, isn't it? It's certainly spruced up a lot since we first moved in here." Bernard commented as he followed after Wayne before looking at the watch in his hand again. "Nice work on this, think she made it?" he turned it around and seeing the 'M' emblazed on the silver backing. "Oh yes. She made it."

"The other jewellery looked like it belonged to the Museum." Wayne made a beeline for one of the cars, the side and front panels of which had been completely removed so that he could access the inner workings. "You sure she didn't just brand that with her mark?"

"She doesn't label the stuff she steals." Bernard said.

"Wouldn't be the first time. Remember that car? She re-badged it. She definitely didn't make that."

"Somebody is being a little too technical."

"Hmmm." Wayne leaned into the vehicle and rummaged around. "Speaking of technical, do you still have the manual for that sound system thing?"

"For what?" Bernard asked.

"The thing that makes the car scare away anything that is within range."

Bernard made his way over to a filing cabinet and began sorting through some other manuals before returning with it and opened up the small book, flicking through the pages. "I think I found it."

"Good. Troubleshooting. Cats." Wayne pulled something out of the inside of his vehicle, and looked at it confusedly. "I swear I hit one the other day... it made a sound like a cat. But..." He turned the item upside down. "All I can find is these odd bits."

"Don't let Megamind hear you say that."

"I didn't intend to hit it. And like I said, there was no cat. It was like it just disappeared. Whoosh. Magic."

"The magical disappearing cat-sounding corpse. Leaves only the fresh scent of pine." Bernard smirked as he looked down at the manual. "You'd hate even having a dead animal on your conscience."

"Thus our attempt to make my far-too-fast-car not too much of an issue for the local pet population. Except that this... whatever it was? Left a large hole in the front of the car. And meowing noises."

"Maybe she made a robot?" Bernard guessed. "She's not above tinkering with mechanics as we all know."

"It wasn't Minion." He finally pulled a small bit of metal out of the engine. "See? Now, that last piece was a bit of our car. But this..."

"If it was you wouldn't be standing here. She would have come down on you like a ton of bricks."

"She's still in the Asylum." He waved the bit of metal around. "And this is a bit of the cat!"

Bernard blinked in surprise and walked closer to him, and reached out to touch the piece of metal. "Huh."

"Yeah." The piece was only thin, and as long as his finger. It was articulated, perfectly able to curl into a tight circle. "Does it look like something she'd make? Or is it someone else?"

He was asking the right person since Bernard knew even more about Megamind than Wayne did; if that was possible. He could recognize the woman's handiwork a mile away on his best days, since she had a certain flair to her mechanical creations that would stump regular people. Bernard reached out and took the piece from Wayne and held it up above his head, observing it.

"...it certainly borrows from her earlier work, look at the joints..." he ran his finger along the thin piece of metal. "It's an old piece, whatever it was a part of."

"Hmm." Wayne dropped the bit on the table, and reached over, collecting a small paper cup. "Here's the rest." He dumped them out. A couple of washers, another bit of articulation far shorter than the first, and what looked like half a silicon circuit piece, the size of a large coin. "I have no idea if they're all from the meowing thing."

Bernard picked up the pieces and touched them carefully with his fingers, before grabbing a nearby magnifying glass. He held it over the piece of circuitry. There was mostly oil slicked to it, but something else perked his interest.

"There's dried blood on this."

"Where?"

"Right here." he moved the magnifying glass so Wayne could look at it. He had taken a job in the criminal lab with the police force a few years back, so being able to identify blood was easy for the man. "See? Right here," he pointed to it before letting Wayne take both the circuit and glass from him before picking up another piece of machinery. "Wonder if there's more..."

"Well, there's all sorts of bits inside the front of the car."

"Make a habit of killing things with your car, do you?" Bernard asked dryly.

"No, but whatever it was... It was a very strange cat. Is that cat blood?"

"Can't tell by just looking at it. We'll have to run a test on it."

"Run the test. I'll see if I can find any more pieces." Wayne turned back to the car, and thoughtfully rummaged around.

Bernard busied himself in the far corner of the underground lair. It housed all manner of electrical equipment that could be found in any laboratory up on the surface, but theirs was just that little bit better, and quicker. It helped if you had the kind of money Wayne had access to, to help fund your own research area.

He ran a scan of the sample of blood and slotted it in against the database that had the genetic material of every person (presently up to date) in Metro City. When you fought crime like Wayne, this sort of thing came in handy when you found blood at a scene but had no leads. Bernard adjusted his glasses as he watched the huge screen mounted on the wall glow a faint green as it ran through the system.

It didn't take long for a match to be found, and Bernard stared at the name for a moment before sighing, and rolled his eyes. "Three guesses." he called out as he pressed the 'print' button on the screen.

"You're kidding?"

"Here's a clue. Green eyes."

"I didn't hit her I swear!"

"Blue skin." Bernard looked down at the sheet of paper that he had ripped from the printer.

"Isn't her blood blue?"

"No, it's red. If it was blue her ears wouldn't be that lavender color."

"Mmmh. What was her blood doing on... a robot cat thing?"

"Her nipples are probably purple too." Bernard said aloud before looking back down at the paper. "I don't know. It's weird, I mean there's no reason for her blood to be on one of her robots."

"That's... That's great. Thanks so _much_."

"You're welcome."

"I'm not going to get that image out of my head now... Do you think it went rogue?"

Bernard had a satisfied, smug expression on his face as he read down the information, even if most of it he already knew. It was interesting how similar to human blood the alien girl's blood was. "I don't know. I mean, she knows how to work in the three laws of robotics into everything she makes... she never seeks out to hurt anyone so why would one turn rogue?"

"An experiment gone wrong? She does call herself evil sometimes."

"Perhaps she was experimenting with a different A.I and it got out of control. That, or she's hurt and bled on it."

"Bled on it? I guess she could have just cut herself on a tool when she was working on it."

"So then why was it racing across town and ended up under your car?" Bernard asked.

"I have no idea. It was sent to get her a band aid?"

Bernard laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe tampons. Maybe it's that blood."

"You should be able to test for that."

"I can?" Bernard asked, blinking in surprise. "Huh. I forgot about that. But I'm not _that_curious. Are you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm... Well, in theory we could find out whether there's a pattern between her cycle and her breaking out of... No. I don't think I am. Lets just leave it."

"I agree. There is such a thing as knowing _too_much about a woman. Especially a woman who wear latex and her main accessories are spikes."

"Perhaps she caught herself on a spike."

"Or a robot scratched her by accident."

"Well, that seems to be the last of the stuff in the car." Wayne dropped one last item in the tray, and started bending pieces of engine back into the correct shape.

Bernard tossed the print out into the shredding machine before heading back to the car and leaned against it. "Wonderful. So do you think it'll be another night in for you, or are you going to be racing out?" Bernard asked.

"There's always someone out there who needs a hand." Wayne dropped the tray into Bernard's hand. "Can you make anything of any of that?" Small bits of mangled metal, a glass bead and what looked like some sort of coin had been dropped into the tray.

He stared down at the tray, before balancing it with one hand. He lifted the coin. "A penny. My lucky day." he said sarcastically before setting it back down amongst the other bits of metal. "Hrm." he frowned as he inspected the pieces. "Besides the worst necklace ever conceived?" he asked, before shaking his head. "No, I can't." Bernard informed him.

"Right. I guess it was nothing important then." Wayne bent various parts of the engine back to where they were meant to be and frowned. "Do you think anyone is going to notice that my engine always has finger prints in it?"

"I think they'd be more preoccupied by the actions you're doing rather the state of your engine." Bernard said as he carried the tray away to a table, and set it down. "Anyway. I'm off. Try to stay out of trouble tonight, hm?" he asked.

"I always do."

* * *

><p>The heat coming off of the burning van was intense, and Roxanne panted as she lifted a hand to wipe at her brow and swore when she lowered her wrist to discover not only sweat but blood on her sleeve. <em>Another night in paradise<em>. She looked around as the ringing in her ears continued to buzz, drowning out the noise around her but it didn't affect her sight. Keeping her gun drawn the woman ran across the road to kneel down besides her partner, whose face resembled a bloodied pulp.

"God damn it." she swore as she pulled her transceiver from her belt and shouted a request for an ambulance and back up. A bizarre scattering of flaming scraps of paper came raining down from the skies above.

Only once her requests were shouted did she reach down to pick one up, one that hadn't been burned as badly as the rest. It was here she realized they weren't just bits of paper...

They were cards. Playing cards. Every single one of them was the same card, yet from so many kinds of deck designs since the picture was different on every single one. In the light given off by the burning truck Roxanne stared at the singed card in her hand, and frowned.

A joker grinned back up at her.

In the distance, barely audible to the woman whose ears still rang from the exploding van, there was a faint but hysterical laugh that slowly faded into the night.

_To be continued_


	5. Close Encounters

**Close Encounter**

It had all seemed like a good idea at the time. And now here he was... wondering how on earth he was going to get out of this without someone working out what he'd done.

Bernard was going to kill him.

Wayne walked through the crowds, marvelling at the fact that no one seemed to have any idea of who he was. Usually he had to wear a trenchcoat, glasses and a hat as a disguise, if he didn't want to be recognised as his playboy millionaire persona, and that tended to make everyone look at him a little oddly. Now, though, he was just walking through the crowd as if he were another person, no one in particular.

There was a little girl staring at him, and he blinked at her, then waved. She smiled and waved back, and skipped after her mother. No screams, no odd looks, no hero worship.

It was so liberating.

He knew exactly where he was headed. First, the foodcourt. Then up in the elevator, and without anyone trying to make a fuss of him, he would buy a present for Bernard, a Christmas present, and he'd stand in a queue to pay for it. And perhaps Bernard wouldn't kill him.

=M=

He had been sitting on the balcony fiddling with the watch, which he'd found unexpectedly in a pocket. Bernard had gone home, and he was bored. The watch was almost ten minutes slow, so he was trying to reset it to the right time... and there had been a bit of a flash, and his hand had looked... different.

A glance in the plate glass window behind him had been enough to confirm that somehow the watch was making him look like Bernard. Only a little more fiddling proved that he was able to turn it on and off at will, and that he couldn't fix Bernards crooked bow tie or rather crazy hairstyle... it just sort of stayed there, although he could almost feel them. Very odd.

And then he had the very bad idea of taking the watch for a walk.

=M=

The night was going very well. Several people had trodden on his feet, which didn't hurt him, as he was indestructible. He'd had a bad moment when he had realised his credit card wasn't HIS credit card whilst he was wearing the watch. He'd bought icecream. Someone had whistled at him when he walked past, again not in a hero worship way. He was part of the crowd, and he liked it.

He'd soon become bored of department store shopping, where he could buy anything, and wandered further down the street, following the city lights past movie theatres, towards what soon turned out to be a tiny Chinatown. It became darker and cooler, and he stood in line again to buy a paper packet of tiny, dangerously hot, deep fried cakes, full of molten custard. The other customers walked away blowing on cakes and burning their fingers and their mouths. He found the heat of the cakes quite pleasant, but pretended like the rest of the crowd that the molten custard was a startlingly dangerous surprise...

What he needed for Christmas for Bernard was a gift he couldn't purchase as Wayne, or at least couldn't purchase as easily. But that only made things even harder, since buying for Bernard was _always_ hard to do no matter how many times it had happened. How did you treat a man to a gift he probably didn't need, or want, yet you yourself felt that he deserved? Bernard had gotten him through the crippling pain the loss of his parents had brought, he had practically become his second father yet still remained his best friend as well as brother at the same time.

How that all worked, Wayne didn't question. It just did.

The shops had less windows, and what he saw in the windows showed restaurants, or alcohol. He stepped into an amazing supermarket which held everything from vegetables he'd never seen before (fresh, dried and pickled) to cutlery and crockery he didn't know how to use. Strange wickerwork steamers and mass-produced ornate teapots, which he honestly considered buying for Bernard. Nothing seemed _just_ right though.

Then he was outside a shop full of second-hand items, and he knew that this was where he would find something appropriate. An Indiana Jones hat stood on a stand surrounded by remarkable knives, swords, and a deadly-looking machete. A row of musical instruments, in various states of repair, hung along the wall. Violins in bright colours, a banjo covered in shell inlay, old iPods and boom boxes were arrayed in a messy pile.

A rich red lava lamp slowly bubbled, throwing shadows on the wall. It was standing on an ornate carved plinth. Now _that_ was unusual.

He walked in the open door.

"Ah good day sir!" the man in the store greeted as he was stacking some new displays onto a shelf against the wall. "And how are you today?" he asked, smiling warmly.

"I. Um." He panicked, for a moment, forgetting who he was. So far no one had said a word to him.

"I know, it's a bit cluttered in here isn't it?" the man asked with a laugh. "Hope you find something you're after, either way."

"I have. Sort of. The lamp?"

"Ah, the lava lamp! A relic of a time long since past." he walked over to the red lamp and stared at it, smiling faintly. "A time of flowers in hair and tie dyed shirts."

"Simpler times." Wayne agreed, gazing at slowly rising red-orange spheres.

"Far simpler then they are today. Did you want it?" he asked, looking at the brunette with the crazy hair and glasses.

"I think it's the perfect gift for Ber- For. My... friend."

"Wonderful. I'll get one of them already in a box; do you have a desired colour? We have red, orange, blue, green..."

"They come in colours? What does the blue look like?" he asked without thinking.

"I've got the blue one here..." the man knelt and pulled a box out from under the display stand the lava lamp was on and pulled it out of the box. "It doesn't look much like this, but I could plug it in if you want?" he offered. "Though you gotta be careful with them. Can't shake them, for one. You'd be surprised how many people brought theirs back to me complaining about them not working right after shaking them."

"Kids do that." Wayne tilted his head as he looked at the beautiful dark blue and silver-white of the lava lamp. He determinedly did his best not to think about what the colours made him think of, and held his hand up. "Don't plug it in. I'll take that one, and one of the ones in the red as well."

"Two? Sure thing, sure thing." the man grabbed a box marked 'red' as well and carried them both to the check out.

And so Wayne left the store with a re-useable bag, two lava lamps stacked neatly inside.

Wandering down the street he decided to take the long way to the taxi stand, through the park. A row of street lamps made perfect round spots on the path, and he experimented with his shadow, walking around the streetlamp several times.

This was so liberating. He still couldn't believe it, this feeling of walking around the town without garnering any type of reaction from the people around him. All his life, even as a child, people had seen him differently to them. He was a millionaire long before he even knew what the word meant, a boy 'born' into a family of wealth and affluence. He wasn't like other kids... even if you didn't count his super powers.

To be treated as an every day man... he never thought it would happen. And yet here it was.

And that's when he really was treated like an everyman. There was a sudden weight against his back, and Wayne began to turn his head. There was something being held to his neck while someone gripped his arm. "Nice and easy, nice and easy." the man whispered harshly into his ear. "Come with me now."

Wayne knew he could take this guy. He could flex his arm and utterly destroy him, but... that would give away who he was, wouldn't it? Would it really? There wasn't really any time to think, but he fast found himself being jostled down a side street by the man whose face he hadn't even seen yet.

"You don't have to do this," Wayne finally found his voice at some point between leaving the main street. Well, perhaps if they were in enough of an out of the way place, he could take off the watch and not be found out.

The next thing to happen completely blew him away. The man who had been up against him was suddenly pulled away by such a force Wayne lost grip his bag. He watched as the man was thrown against the wall opposite by somebody he hadn't seen before. Not only because he had been preoccupied by the man trying to mug him, no, but because she was clad in black from head to toe.

_Megamind_.

Nobody had seen her for weeks now. After her latest escape from the asylum, people had been starting to think she was gone for good. But here she was in her skintight black outfit, her ridiculous boots and gloves. "You chose the wrong alley to come down." she snarled as the man righted himself to glare at her, before swinging a punch at her.

The woman easily side stepped the punch and grabbed his arm. "Bad mistake." she hissed before pulling him with her, and threw him over her shoulder completely. The man slammed into the ground with a loud grunt and an even louder thud but even that didn't seem enough to deter him since he grabbed at her foot and pulled. Megamind yelped as she began to fall, but turned like a cat, grabbed at the floor and swung her boot. It connected with his head, made a satisfying sound, and he fell momentarily still.

"Really!" Megamind said as she got to her feet so fast, if Wayne had blinked he would have missed it. She stared down at the man as if he was something she'd wipe off her boot, and pulled out the weapon Wayne had expected her to use from the very start. Her De-Gun. The man was just beginning to stir she aimed it at him and pulled the trigger. For but a moment the darkness of the alley way vanished, replaced by a bright flash of blue, before it returned as the light vanished back into her gun.

"Some people..." she bent down and picked up the blue cube, oblivious to a card knocked free of the man during their fight, and held the cube up to the light. Megamind grinned triumphantly, tossed the tiny object into the air, caught it again, and pocketed it. "Now, _do_ hold your praise and adulation, I know what you just experienced must... must be..."

Megamind was looking at him, finally, and the way her eyes were widening and how she lost her trail of thought easily told him she recognized him. Moments later he realised she was seeing him as... Bernard.

"I... I... Um. Thankyou. That. You..." he stuttered incoherently.

She appeared to be over the shock, since she re-holstered her weapon. "Huh. Never thought I'd save you, of all people." she said, watching him carefully like a stray cat not knowing whether it should stay or go.

_There's someone you would think even more unlikely to save._ "How... That was incredible. How can I ever repay you?"

Megamind hadn't expected that kind of response. She tilted her head slightly, the goggles on top of her head reflecting the light of the near by street lamp. "Incredible?" she asked, since it appeared that was the word she was fixating on. "We-well. Of course it was, I'm Megamind. Do I do anything _not_ incredible?" she asked with a small smile.

He picked up his bag again, looking inside quickly, unsure if the lamps had survived their shock. The boxes showed no outside signs of damage. Then he looked up at her again. "It was rather stupid of me, I guess."

"Just a little." Megamind said honestly. "You got to be careful when in this part of town. They catch wind of money and they'll be all over you." she said as she set her hands on her hips. "You know you should feel proud!" she suddenly announced, grinning brightly.

_Her smiles were always so gorgeous_. "Why?"

"This was my first good deed done!" she said brightly. "My first ever!"

Tonight was a night of doing things differently. And it wasn't a huge distance... "It deserves rewarding then" he said, and before he could stop himself, he leaned forward, and kissed her.

Megamind hadn't anticipated this. The man, Bernard, had suddenly moved closer to her than anyone had ever been before. Then his lips were on hers, and she felt her whole body stiffen for a fraction of a second. He wasn't questioning her? He wasn't running for help? He wasn't calling the police? He was... she melted quickly, and Wayne felt the woman's arms suddenly lock around his neck as she kissed him in return as enthusiastically as she could.

It was her first, but how would he know that?

When the kiss finally ended, he grinned at her, feeling foolish and goofy. "The good girl gets the kiss." he whispered.

She stared at him, eyes wide. Megamind swallowed, dryly, before she finally found her voice from where it had hidden in the back of her throat. "What a perk." she purred.

"It's the best perk." he confided in her. "Doesn't get old in a hurry."

"I'm going to have to save you again, then." she whispered as she trailed a leather-clad finger down his jaw. "Since that is something I can most _definitely_ get used to."

His heartbeat was remarkably solid in his own ears, and he blinked at her stupidly. What was it about this woman which always seemed to make him loose all common sense? And all chance at sounding clever. Then her nose was touching his and she kissed him this time, a fluttery, short thing before she pulled back from him. Her hands ran down his shoulders, arms, and for a brief moment they were holding hands.

"Be sure to pass on my regards to you know who." she whispered as she began backing into the darkness again. "And I'll hope to see you again..."

"Wait-"

But it was too late. He stepped after her but she was already gone, having seemingly melted into the darkness.

It took him hours to actually go home.

=M=

The night had been very fruitful for Megamind, and she was sure if she smiled any brighter her cheeks would be sore in the morning. Not only had she had a successful first good deed of the night, but she'd gotten a _kiss_ out of the deal. _Two_ kisses, at that, from Bernard of all people! It had been like strapping rockets to her feet since the woman had practically floated the rest of the night away, breaking up gang violence, and even stopping a robbery at a Seven Eleven.

So here she was, standing across the street from the Police Headquarters. In her hand was a bag, full of small blue glowing cubes. Attached to each one was a sticky note detailing what crimes they'd committed, and where she had picked them up. Then there was the main note, telling the police to only re-hydrate the cubes once they were behind bars less they want a bunch of criminals suddenly appearing inside their walls.

In another bag was their weapons, guns and the like, heavy in her hands.

"So here I am. Willingly approaching the police." she said aloud to herself. "You can do this Megamind. Remember. Confidence makes the woman."

She did it quickly. She ran across the street on her high heeled boots and the guard who was behind the front desk beyond the glass sliding doors glanced up when he noticed her movements. It was obvious he was going for a phone, but she could care less. The second the doors slid open she threw the two bags in, and they slid across the polished floor.

"Special delivery from yours truly!" she called before doing an about face, shot something into the air, and vanished in seconds thanks to a handy grappling hook gun she had created for emergencies like that. Using the darkness and the shadows like the professional she was, Megamind vanished into the shadows and was no where near the head quarters by the time more cops arrived.

Work done for the night, Megamind headed home.

When she walked into the lair, she sighed a heavy sigh of accomplishment as she pulled her night viewing goggles off of her eyes and rested them on her forehead whilst her Cat Bots came rushing towards her in greeting. Of course they were programmed to be cat like but they were an affectionate bunch when Mommy came home.

"MOWG! Mowg? Brrrrrrrwooowg?"

"Hello my wittle babies~!" Megamind cooed as some of them rubbed up against her affectionately as she continued walking across the lair's large open planned floor. "Did you all behave tonight?" she asked.

"Prrrrrrr."

"Some of them have." Minion appeared, moving remarkably quietly for a robot, his mechanical tail flicking backwards and forwards.

"Only some?" she asked as she was now holding the pink glowing one to her chest, petting its glowing head. It purred mechanically in pleasure whilst others glared with jealousy.

"SOMEone found the remote for the submarine."

"Oh dear." Megamind sighed, shaking her head.

"I don't think we'll be able to rescue the submarine, and the remote is now in pieces."

"Well it was made for _evil_ intent any way," Megamind released her hold on the Cat Bot and it floated away to join the others, who still glared.

"It would have been useful. It's now taken out escape plans 5 A through F, and severely limited the possibilities for escape plans 4 D and H."

She walked over to her faithful companion and pressed her hands against the dome of his head and bent over, pressing a sudden kiss to the glass. "You worry too much, Minion. I can re-create the submarine, better than the last, you'll see." Megamind petted the dome before standing up again, stretching her back as she did.

"I'm a little worried someone will _find_ the submarine."

"Again. You worry too much." she said. "But if you're THAT worried fine, I'll find a way to destroy what's left."

"What if Metro Man finds out about it?"

She moved her hand like a talking puppet, mimicking him, as she walked away towards the kitchen area of the lair. "Aren't you even going to ask me how my first night of heroism went, Minion? I'm disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry Mistress. How did your first night of non-villainy go?"

"It went SPECTACULAR!" Megamind responded vigorously as she opened the fridge to pull out a bottle of drink. "I stopped a few muggings, a gang about to cause some really bad trouble and even stopped a hold up! It was... it was _amazing!_" but then she sighed heavenly as she leaned against the bench top, toying with the neck of the bottle slowly. "And something else happened... something... truly, truly amazing..."

"Oh yes Mistress?"

"Mmm-hmmmm..." she purred, still playing with the neck of the bottle in a way that might cause some people to blush.

Minion proffered a bottle opener. "So what was truly, truly amazing?"

Megamind got a wickedly happy smile on her face as her beautiful green eyes looked down at him, yet seemingly unable to see the bottle opener. "The first person I saved...? It was Bernard." she started before sighing again, and a lavender blush flushed its way across her cheeks and nose. "And he thanked me in a very, very, _very_... amazing way."

"He... thanked you." The fish's eyes blinked carefully. "He. But. He what?"

She made a little squeal noise. "He kissed me!"

"He kissed _you_?"

Megamind squealed again. "Twice!"

"But. I thought..."

"Thought what?" she asked, finally reaching for the bottle opener.

"I thought Bernard was gay." _I thought Bernard was taken_...

"Well he _obviously_ isn't," Megamind replied with a scoff as she worked the bottle lid off. "The way he was kissing me, Minion? Not gay at all." she said before hopping up onto the counter, crossing her legs as she did.

"I was pretty sure..." Minion paced around in several confused circles, like a tiger at the zoo, tail flicking in an even more agitated manner, his fish body always turning in its bowl so that he could continue looking at his mistress. "Are you sure it was Bernard, Mistress?"

"Of course it was him. Same hair, same glasses, same outfit. It was him, Minion." she said before taking a swig of her drink, then pausing. "Wait. Why are you asking that?"

"Because I'm sure he is already taken." Minion turned and sat, tail thumping on the ground.

She stared at him for a moment, before a look slowly crossed her face. That proud, happy, content look she had worn since walking in slowly drained to be replaced with one of hurt, worry, and insecurity. "...he's..." Megamind said slowly, quietly, before looking down at the bottle in her hand. "B-but he..." she said before lifting her hands and pressed them to her lips, remembering the kiss in the alley way. It had felt so... so wonderful.

She'd never been kissed before; she thought she never would and how he'd started it like that? Why would he? How could he if he was _taken_ and...

_Oh no_... Minion thought. _Here we go_... "Look, Mistress, I must be wrong. I must have... must have made a mistake..." he backpedalled furiously.

She set the bottle down on the counter and jumped off of it nimbly, face still flushed pale blue as her mind ran over the scenario in her head over and over again, barely even hearing Minion's words as she walked away. "He said the good girl gets the kiss why would he say that if he didn't mean it?" she mumbled as she started heading up the spiral stairs to the upper half of the lair, where she slept and kept her vast wardrobe.

Minion chased after Megamind, claws of his suit tapping on the floor. "Perhaps he's... he's turned over a new leaf as well, Mistress? Perhaps your... your incredible intellect has..."

She stopped at the top of the stairs and looked over her shoulder at him. "...could it be possible?" Megamind asked quietly. The reasoning seemed simple enough but yet... this horrible little seed Minion had buried in her mind had already taken root and was growing a sapling. Had he just done it to play with her? To mess with her? He _was_ Wayne's right hand man, so she shouldn't be that surprised if he had taken the opportunity to toy with her like this.

"Why else would he kiss you? Mistress, were you able to tell whether he was serious? If it was... if it was a real kiss..." Minion faltered, and looked on in horror as Megamind seemed to go even more downhill. _Darn. Made it worse._

"How can a kiss not be real?" Megamind asked shakily. "He kissed _me_."

"What I mean is. You would have known if he didn't mean it. You would have been able to tell."

"Would I? How would I, Minion? Tell me that." she was getting angry now, defensive, lashing out like a cat suddenly stuck with no way out. "How many guys have kissed me, Minion? I'll tell you. One. _One_, and that was tonight. How am I supposed to tell if a guy means it or not?" Megamind let out a frustrated noise before rushing away from him, and the stairs, and hurried to her room and vanished inside.

Thankfully without slamming the door like a teenager. Seemed she was maturing, at least a little. _I completely stuffed that up_. Minion sat outside the door, head up, then turned and curled up head on forelimbs, back to the door, to wait. _There's nothing I can say which will make that any better._

He could remember a time, long ago, when Megamind (back then answering to a name she no longer recognized as her own) had been hopeful of getting a kiss one day. After all, she had been a little girl once, a little girl who hoped one day she would find her 'one true love' like they did in the movies. A boy who would like her for who she was, even if she was blue and bald.

When their teacher had told them the wonders of Valentines Day, and that it came with the prospect of presents from your secret admirer, Minion had watched her face light up in the classroom. It had been one of the rare times she had smiled whilst attending that horrible school.

He'd been too young to realise what was going to happen next.

The day came, and Megamind had cleaned up especially hard that morning, cleaning her face and finding the cleanest orange jumpsuit she had on hand. She had even cleaned her white sneakers until they gleamed. "I want to look nice for him!" she had told the fish enthusiastically in their cell as they waited to be taken to the school.

To add further torment, the teacher even had them make mail boxes that morning so they had a place for their presents to be placed. Megamind worked hard, actually sticking to the rules of design for once, and had made a lavender coloured box with lace around it. Proudly she had stuck it to the front of her desk, and had waited.

And waited.

And waited.

She had watched the other little girls in her class recieve cards, and other such things. Even some of the boys got some, from the girls. Wayne especially was showered upon with gifts of chocolate and cards. Megamind checked her box, every now and then, in case somebody had left her something when she wasn't looking.

It remained empty for the entirety of the day.

But she hadn't cried, despite her heart being broken. She didn't cry when she left the school with an empty, miserable box. She didn't cry when she returned to her cell, setting the box down in the corner of the cell as if it had done something naughty.

"Boys are gross any way." she had whispered to her fish that night, while she held his ball tightly to her chest when she was going to sleep. "Except you, Minion. You're not gross..."

No, he was just a complete _screw up_...

_To be continued_


End file.
